Sacra Liturgia UK Website Launched

Keynote speaker: Robert Cardinal Sarah

The new website of Sacra Liturgia UK is now live and gives further details of the 5-8 July 2016 London conference. The titles of all presentations are now published as are details of liturgical celebrations and preachers. Some suggestions for accommodation are also available. 

The conference is open to all who are interested in the Sacred Liturgy. Delegate fees will be announced when registrations open in January 2016. For more information visit the site here.

Liturgical and musical celebrations at Sacra Liturgia UK 2016

We are happy to announce the following details of the liturgical and musical celebrations that will form part of Sacra Liturgia UK 2016, London, 5-8 July 2016.

Tuesday, 5th July
16h30: Solemn Vespers (Breviarium Romanum 1961)
St Anthony Maria Zaccaria (III cl.)
The Oratory Church, London SW7 2RP
Celebrant: Bishop Dominique Rey, Bishop of Fréjus-Toulon
Music: Oratory Choir, directed by Patrick Russill

Tuesday, 5th July
19h00: Concert of Sacred Music with the London Oratory School Schola Cantorum, directed by Charles Cole
Holy Trinity Church, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BA

Wednesday, 6th July
19h00: Solemn Pontifical Mass (Missale Romanum 2002)
Votive Mass of Saints Peter & Paul
The Oratory Church, London SW7 2RP
Celebrant & Preacher: Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.
Music: London Oratory School Schola Cantorum, directed by Charles Cole

Thursday, 7th July
19h00: Solemn Pontifical Mass (Missale Romanum 1962)
Votive Mass of Our Lord Jesus Christ the Eternal High Priest
The Oratory Church, London SW7 2RP
Celebrant & Preacher: Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, Archbishop of San Francisco
Music: Oratory Choir, directed by Patrick Russill

Friday, 8th July
Evensong (Ordinariate Use)
Feria
Church of Our Lady of the Assumption & St Gregory, Warwick Street, London W1B 5LZ
Celebrant: Mgr Keith Newton, Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.

All liturgical celebrations will be open to the public. Seating will be reserved for conference delegates.

Conference delegates will receive a ticket for admission to the Concert of Sacred Music; other tickets may be available for the public space permitting.

Preliminary details for Sacra Liturgia UK 5-8 July 2016

The Blessed Sacrament Procession
concluding Sacra Liturgia USA, 4 June 2015
Photo courtesy of Arrys Ortanez 

Planning for Sacra Liturgia UK, 5-8 July 2016, at Imperial College, London, is well advanced. We are pleased to announce the participation of the following speakers in addition to His Eminence, Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments:

Dr Stephen Bullivant

Msgr Andrew Burnham

Fr Michael Cullinan

Dr Jennifer Donelson

Professor David Fagerberg

Professor Joris Geldof

Bishop Alan Hopes

Professor Helmut Hoping

Dr Clare Hornsby

Fr Uwe Michael Lang, Cong.Orat.

Dom Charbel Pazat de Lys, O.S.B.

Dom Alcuin Reid

Bishop Dominique Rey

Professor Peter Stephan

Further details including speakers’ topics, a timetable including the times and locations of liturgical celebrations, details of the publication of the proceedings of Sacra Liturgia USA 2015, and other information will be released on a dedicated Sacra Liturgia UK website and Facebook page in November. Links will be posted here when they are available.

Registrations will open in January when the conference rates will be announced in the light of sponsorships and benefactions, etc.

Delegates are responsible for their own accommodation. The area of London near Imperial College has many hotels. The nearest Tube station is South Kensington. We are happy to suggest the following possibilities for nearby accommodation  to delegates who wish to make arrangements in advance: Imperial College, More House,  Allen Hall. 

Two 2016 Sacra Liturgia Events

An international Sacra Liturgia conference is to be held in central London, UK, from 5-8 July 2016. The presentations at will take place at Imperial College, a college of the University of London, in South Kensington, and the liturgical celebrations will be held at central London churches. His Eminence, Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, has indicated his willingness to attend and speak.

A full programme of speakers and liturgical celebrations is being prepared and is due to be announced by October 2015, together with the launch of Sacra Liturgia UK’s website. Registrations are due to open early in 2016.

Sacra Liturgia is profoundly grateful to His Eminence, Vincent Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, for his gracious welcome of the conference to his Archdiocese.

Due to the timing of the London conference the Sacra Liturgia Summer School, to be held at the Monastère Saint-Benoît in La Garde-Freinet, Provence, France, has been scheduled for 5-17 August 2016. Further details will be announced in January 2016.

Sacra Liturgia's 2015 Summer Events

It has been a busy summer for Sacra Liturgia, with the major conference in New York City in June and the summer school in the South of France in July. 

Sacra Liturgia USA's Facebook page contains summaries of the presentations, photos and links to reports on the New York conference. A full photo album, including the beautiful Corpus Christi Procession through the streets of Manhatttan, can be viewed on Flickr here.

The proceedings of the New York conference are due for publication in the summer of 2016. Full texts will not be available before publication. Details of the publication will be posted on this site and on Facebook in due course.

A photo album of the Sacra Liturgia 2015 Summer School, held for a second time in Provence in the South of France, is available on the central Sacra Liturgia Facebook page. A selection of photos of the pontifical liturgies for the feast of St Benedict is also available here.

News of Sacra Liturgia's 2016 events will be published soon.

Future Sacra Liturgia Events

It is still possible to register for the 2015 Sacra Liturgia Summer School, to be held in La Garde-Freinet, Provence, France, from 4-19 July 2015, which will include the participation of Bishop Dominique Rey and Bishop Athanasius Schneider. Further details of the Summer School and the link to the form for full or part-time registrations can be found here. Registrants needing help with finding accommodation or any other matter should contact the Secretariat through the contact form on this page.

As announced at Sacra Liturgia USA in New York City on 1st June, the next international Sacra Liturgia Conference is planned for London, UK, from 5-8 July 2016 at a central location to be confirmed. We hope to be able to announce further details of the venue, speakers and topics on this site by September. 

As he publicised in his Message to Sacra Liturgia USA, His Eminence, Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, hopes to be present in London for the 2016 conference. His Eminence has been invited to give the keynote address.

Arrangements are in hand for the publication of the proceedings of Sacra Liturgia USA 2015, and it is planned that this publication will be launched in London at the 2016 conference. No recordings or transcripts will be otherwise available, although excerpts from papers are available on the Sacra Liturgia USA Facebook page, and photos of the New York conference are available on Flickr.

Summer School Requiem Mass to be offered for Nick Gale

The English Catholic musician, Nick Gale, who was tragically killed in a road accident in March, was a friend to many who will be present at the Summer School in July. The solemn requiem Mass at the summer school, at 09h00 on Wednesday, July 8th, will be offered for the repose of his soul. A Vatican Radio obituary of this apostle of the Church's Sacred Liturgy and its chant may be read here. 

Requiescat in pace.

Sacra Liturgia Summer School 2015 - Speakers and Presentations

We are pleased to announce the speakers and topics for the presentations at the summer school in July 2015. Full details of the summer school and the link for full or part-time registration are available here.

10h15 Monday, 6 July—Dom Alcuin Reid: Praying the Sacred Liturgy.

Dr Jonas Vilimas

10h15 Wednesday, 8 July—Dr Jonas Vilimas: Re-discovering the Sense and Essence of the Liturgy: The Proper Chants of Roman Mass as the Measure of the Organic Development of the Liturgy—Part 1. Out of Psalmody: the beginnings and the early development.

10h15 Thursday, 9 July—Dr Jonas Vilimas: Re-discovering the Sense and Essence of the Liturgy—Part 2. Tradidi quod et accepi (I handed on what I received): The Proper Chants of Roman Mass throughout the ages.

09h15 Friday, 10 July—Dr Jonas Vilimas: Re-discovering the Sense and Essence of the Liturgy—Part 3. The rupture and the solution: the impact of post-Conciliar reform and the present situation.

19h00 Saturday, 11 July—Bishop Athanasius Schneider: Some aspects of the renewal of the Church and its Liturgy.

10h15 Monday, 13 July—Dom Alcuin Reid: Pastoral Liturgy Revisited

Fr Thomas Kocik

10h15 Tuesday, 14 July—Fr Thomas Kocik: “Late have I loved thee”—Discovering the Roman rite as ritual.

10h15 Wednesday, 15 July—Dom Alcuin Reid: In Pursuit of Participation—Liturgy and Liturgists in Early Modern and Post Enlightenment Catholicism.

10h15 Thursday, 16 July—Dom Alcuin Reid: The Twentieth Century Liturgical Movement.

The information given above may be subject to change. Any alterations will be posted on this page as soon as they are known. 

Sacra Liturgia UK

We are sorry to announce that due to organisational difficulties and other considerations it is unfortunately not possible to hold a Sacra Liturgia event in Oxford in September 2015 as previously planned. 

In the coming months we hope to be able to announce plans for a larger Sacra Liturgia conference for the early summer of 2016 in a convenient UK location. Details will be posted on this page.

Our 2015 events include Sacra Liturgia USA, 1-4 June 2015, and the Sacra Liturgia Summer School, 4-19 July 2015. Registrations are open now for both events.

Sacra Liturgia Summer School 4-19 July 2015

La Garde-Freinet
(Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur)
83680 France

A two week (three Sunday) English-language liturgical summer school following on from the international conference Sacra Liturgia 2013 and the successful 2014 summer school, organised by the Monastère Saint-Benoît of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, France, in association with the Ad Fontes Institute of Lithuania.

Bishop Dominique Rey at the 2014 Summer School

Designed for families, individuals and groups of clergy and laity who wish to holiday in Provence in the South of France whilst having the opportunity to participate in liturgical celebrations according to the usus antiquior, including Solemn Pontifical Vespers celebrated by Bishop Dominique Rey, the Bishop of of Fréjus-Toulon and Solemn Pontifical Mass and Vespers celebrated by Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Maria Santissima in Astana, Kazakhstan. Pilgrimages and visits to historic sites including the Royal Basilica and relics of St Mary Magdalen at St Maximin-La-Sainte-Baume, the chapel and relics of St Roseline of Villeneuve (†1329), and the ancient Cistercian Abbey of Le Thoronet form part of the programme, as do celebrations of vespers with organ in the parish churches of the nearby villages of Grimaud and Saint-Tropez. 

Bishop Athanasius Schneider will celebrate
pontifical Mass & vespers and give a conference

The summer school includes practical and academic liturgical formation and discussion. Presenters include Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Dom Alcuin Reid, Father Thomas Kocik and Dr Jonas Vilmas. Bishop Schneider will speak on "Some aspects of the renewal of the Church and its liturgy". Other presenters' topics will be announced in due course.  Training in Gregorian chant and in the ceremonies of the usus antiquior will be available for participants (including beginners).

The mountain village of La Garde-Freinet, situated in a wine growing region some 20 km from Saint-Tropez and approximately 15 km from the Mediterranean Sea, is an ideal holiday location with mountain walks, a Provencal market, shops and restaurants. English is widely spoken in the village. Participants will arrange their own accommodation and meals and transport. For further information on the village, including local accommodation available for rent, see here. 

The nearest airports are Toulon/Hyeres, Nice and Marseille from which one can hire a car to use in getting to and from the village, for use whilst there, and for the pilgrimages. The nearest railway station is Les Arcs/Draguinan from which in July there are four buses per day to La Garde-Freinet. French railway information can be found here and bus timetables here.

Practical training options:

Low Mass practice (for clergy and seminarians)

-   Textbook: J.B. O’Connell, The Celebration of Mass; a Study of the Rubrics of the Roman Missal.. (1964; reprinted by Preserving Christian Publications)

The Sacred Ministers at Solemn Mass including chants (for clergy and seminarians)

-      Textbook: Fortescue, O’Connell, Reid, The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, 15th ed., Burns & Oates 2009.

Sung Mass (missa cantata) including chants (for clergy and seminarians)

-     Textbook: Fortescue, O’Connell, Reid, The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, 15th ed., Burns & Oates 2009

Serving low, sung and solemn Mass (men and boys)

-     No textbook is required, but those who wish may bring: Fortescue, O’Connell, Reid, The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, 15th ed., Burns & Oates 2009

The chant of the Mass and Office (any participants - beginners, intermediate & advanced)

-     Tutors will be in touch regarding materials to bring. Most music will be provided.

Registration fees and options for practical training are available on the registration form.

To register please click here. 

Registration is possible for one or two weeks 

or for individual days.

Registrants are responsible for their own accommodation, transport and meals. Where possible the secretariat will try to help individuals who need to share accommodation or transport.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Normal Daily Schedule

Lauds: 06h00 (followed by private Masses)

Prime: 07h30

Confessions: 08h30

Terce: 08h45

Sung Mass: 09h00

Academic Presentation and Discussion: 10h15

Break: 11h15

Practical training: Chant/Ceremonies: 11h30

Sext: 12h45

None: 14h00

Vespers: 18h00

Aperitif & social time: 18h30

Compline: 19h30

 Notes for Specific Days

Sat 4 July: Registration from 15h30 (registration is possible on other days, as people arrive) 

Solemn Vespers 18h00 followed by aperitif.

Sun 5 July: Normal schedule (without Presentation and Discussion or training sessions) 

Including Solemn Mass 09h00 & Solemn Vespers 18h00 followed by aperitif.

Mon 6 July: Normal schedule

Academic Presentation and Discussion

Tue 7 July: 

Solemn Mass 11h00 – Basilica of St Mary Magdalen, St Maximin 

Afternoon visit to the cave of St Mary Magdalene at La Sainte-Baume

Vespers as normal at 18h00.

Solemn Mass in the Basilica of St Mary Magdalen

Wed 8 July: Normal Horarium (09h00 Solemn requiem Mass)

Academic Presentation and Discussion

18h00 Vespers – Parish Church of St Michel, Grimaud with organ prelude and postludes.

Thu 9 July: Normal schedule

Academic Presentation and Discussion

Fri 10 July:

Normal schedule up to Terce.

Academic Presentation and Discussion: 09h15

Break: 10h15

Practical training: 10h45

Sext: 12h15

Sung Mass: 12h30

None: 14h00

18h00 Solemn Pontifical I Vespers at the Throne celebrated by Bishop Dominique Rey, Bishop of Fréjus-Toulon followed by aperitif.

Sat 11 July: No Presentation and Discussion or training sessions. 

(preparation for pontifical Mass, chant rehearsal &c)

10h30 Solemn Pontifical Mass of St Benedict celebrated by Bishop Athanasius Schneider.

13h00: Shared luncheon with Bishop Schneider (parish hall).

15h00 None

18h00 Solemn Pontifical II Vespers at the Faldstool celebrated by Bishop Athanasius Schneider

19h00 Conference by Bishop Schneider

Solemn II Vespers for the Feast of St Benedict, 11 July 2014

Sun 12 July: Normal schedule (without Presentation and Discussion or training sessions) including Solemn Mass 09h00 & Solemn Vespers & Benediction 18h00 followed by aperitif.

Mon 13 July: Normal schedule

Academic Presentation and Discussion

Tue 14 July: Normal schedule

Academic Presentation and Discussion

Wed 15 July: Normal schedule

Academic Presentation and Discussion

18h00 Vespers – Parish Church of the Assumption, Saint-Tropez, with organ prelude and postludes.

Thu 16 July:  Normal schedule

Academic Presentation and Discussion

Fri 17 July:

11h00: Solemn Mass in the chapel of St Roseline of Villeneuve (†1329) at Les Arcs and veneration of the relics. The office of Sext will be sung at 12h30.

Saint Roseline of Villeneuve

14h30: Visit to the Abbey of Le Thoronet. The office of None will be sung at the end of the visit.

Sat 18 July: No Presentation and Discussion or training sessions. 

Solemn Mass 11.00am – Chapelle N.D. de Miremer followed by a picnic. Sext and None will be sung at the chapel.

Vespers as normal.

The chapel of Notre-Dame de Miremer

Sun 19 July: Normal schedule (without Presentation and Discussion or training sessions) 

Including Solemn Mass 09h00 & Solemn Vespers & Benediction 18h00 followed by aperitif.