"Cosmic Liturgy" at Oxford - update

Some of you may recall me mentioning the G.K. Chesterton Institute for Faith and Culture is hosting a course this Easter at Oxford, Cosmic Liturgy.

Stratford Caldecott recently updated some of the plans for this course-retreat:

In case you hadn't noticed on the web-site, we are beginning to plan a programme on Cosmic Liturgy next Easter (exact dates still being determined). It will be part retreat, part mystagogical study, the intention being to go more deeply together into the mysteries of Easter, against the background of the Pope's encyclical on Love and his forthcoming work on the Eucharist - as well as his earlier book, The Spirit of the Liturgy, and the writings of Maximus the Confessor. It is notable that the Catholic and Orthodox Easters coincide on 8 April 2007, so the retreat will have an ecumenical purpose also. There will also be an emphasis on helping people to pray with the Psalms and the Breviary.

Several speakers have provisionally agreed to come: Alcuin Reid (author of numerous important works on liturgy including The Organic Development of the Liturgy, which was reviewed by no less than Pope Benedict here), Vivian Boland OP (on spiritual warfare in Holy Week and the Passion), and Adrian Walker (an editor of Communio) on the mystagogy of Maximus the Confessor. We are also delighted to have received a positive response from David Fagerberg, from the University of Notre Dame, author of the CTS book on The Christian Meaning of Time in the 'Deeper Christianity' series that I help to edit for CTS, and Paul Grenier, one of our Orthodox friends from the States, whose article on the 'Liturgy of the City Street' is currently online from Godspy. Others will be invited soon, and suggestions are welcome.

Remember this will be a retreat more than a conference, so the spiritual and liturgical dimension will be paramount.