St. Michael's Liturgical Conference 2016
The nineteenth annual St. Michael Liturgical Conference will be held at Zion on Monday, September 26th, 2016 A.+ D. The Conference begins with Holy Mass at 9:00 a.m. Sext is prayed at noon, Solemn Vespers at 4:30 p.m.
The Keynote Speaker is the Rev. Dr. Joel Elowsky. Dr. Elowsky will present on the holiness of time and space in the Divine Service, drawing from the Church Fathers. Dr. Elowsky provides the following summary of his Keynote Presentation:
"The Fathers of the Church did not "do" church. They lived it. They lived what they believed and believed what they lived. Prosper of Aquitaine (ca. 390-ca.455) famously wrote: legem credendi statuat lex supplicandi (the law of praying establishes the law of believing). The divine liturgy served in any number of ways as source and norm for the theology of the fathers because the liturgy itself was normed and found its source in the Word of God. From the earliest days the practice of the liturgy revolved around the two foci of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. The resultant life of prayer which the liturgy expressed drew from the unity the Fathers saw between the Old and New Testaments brought together by the cross and crucifixion, authored by the One divine Author who gave His life for the world. As such, the Fathers viewed the liturgy as sacred space, sacred time, sacred act honoring with sacred words and sacred music the Author and Perfector of their faith and life."
Q & A with Dr. Elowsky, and a panel discussion on reverence in the Divine Service will follow the Keynote presentation. The Rev. Fr. Charles McClean, the Rev. Dr. Burnell Eckardt, and the Rev. Fr. Mark Braden will present papers.
Short Biographies of the 2016 Presenters:
The Rev. Dr. Joel Elowsky is Associate Professor of Historical Theology, and Director of the Center for the Study of Early Christian Texts at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He received the B.A. degree from Concordia University, Ann Arbor, the M.Div. and S.T.M degrees from Concordia Seminary. He also received the M. Phil. and the Ph.D. from Drew University, Madison, N.J. He served as Operations Manager/Research Director for the 29 volume Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, editing both volumes on John. He served as Associate Professor of Theology at Concordia University Wisconsin, as well as Executive Director of The Center for Early African Christianity at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pa. Among his many titles in print, he is Consulting Editor of the Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity.
The Reverend Dr. Burnell Eckardt is Pastor of St. Paul Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Kewanee, Illinois. He received the Ph.D. from Marquette University and the S.T.M. from Concordia Theological Seminary. Fr. Eckardt is editor of Gottesdienst: A Quarterly Journal of the Evangelical-Lutheran Liturgy, and author of Every Day Will I Bless Thee: Meditations for the Daily Office and The New Testament in His Blood: A Study of the Holy Liturgy of the Christian Church. Fr. Eckardt is host of the annual Oktoberfest and Theological Conference.
The Reverend Fr. Charles McClean serves as Pastor of Our Savior Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Baltimore, Maryland. A graduate of Concordia Senior College, Fort Wayne, he received his M. Div. and S.T.M. from Concordia Seminary, Saint Louis, Fr. McClean served as a Pastor in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod from 1968 until 1982. Fr. McClean served as a clergyman of the Episcopal Church from 1985 until 2008. He is the author of The Conduct of the Services, and host of the annual St. Mark Conference.
The Reverend Mark Braden is Pastor of Zion Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Detroit, prior to which he served as Pastor of Zion Lutheran Church of Cleghorn, Wisconsin. He holds both the S.T.M. and M. Div. degrees from Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, where he is an adjunct faculty member. He taught Old Testament Bible for CTS, teaches regularly throughout South America, and teaches Biblical Greek online for CTS. He is an International Fellow for the Luther Academy, and teaches periodically at Concordia University Ann Arbor.
Watch for more information on the 2016 Conference here and on our Zion Facebook page.
To watch the videos of the St. Michael Conference 2016, please click the pictures of the speakers below and it will take you to their video page.