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Liturgy forum studies inculturation of baptism |
| Posted by Diocese of Penang (pgdiocese) on Nov 10 2010 |
(Unedited article sent to Herald by Lucia Lai)
The 14th Asian Liturgy Forum (ALF), with the topic ‘Inculturation of the Baptismal Ordo’ was held on 11 to 15 October at the Stella Maris Retreat Centre, Penang. It was organized by the Liturgical Commission, Diocese of Penang, with Fr. Francis Xavier as its director.
There were 50 delegates from the countries of Singapore, Thailand, Philippine, Indonesia, Cambodia, Brunei, Taiwan and Malaysia. 47 observers from parishes in Malaysia turned up, including ten committee members and several helpers. Over 30 priests were in attendance.
On the first day, the participants visited the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit and prayed the vespers in the Cathedral. This was followed by a Chinese course dinner hosted by the Cathedral’s parish priest, Fr Francis Anthony. A cultural show was also presented while the participants dined.
Everyday throughout the Forum, there were lauds, vespers and Mass held, facilitated by different countries.
Day 2 started with Mass presided by Bishop Anthony Lee, the Bishop of the Diocese of Miri, Sarawak. He is the chairman of the ALF.
Fr Anscar J. Chupungco, from Philippine, who is the secretary of ALF, presented the conference paper. He started off by showing the participants how the Baptismal Ordo has developed through the years.
After giving some brief history of the development, he ended by saying that the diversity in ritual observance brought about by inculturation does not impinge on the unity of the local Church with the other Churches around the world. This is because that unity comes from their belief in one baptism for the remission of sins and their obedience to the divine law to baptize in water, which is the core elements of baptism that binds all those who profess faith for Jesus Christ.
Before going into the process of inculturating the Baptismal Ordo, Fr Anscar stressed that the work of translation does not foresee the creation of new families of rites; inculturation responds to the needs of a particular culture and leads to adaptations which still remain part of the Roman rite. (no. 36)
There are two processes in inculturating the Baptismal Ordo, Fr Anscar said – the Typical Edition and The Components of Culture.
“The work of inculturation must be based on the revised typical edition of the liturgical books of Vatican II.” Said Fr Anscar, “We have to examine the typical edition under the historical background of the rite, the theology it contains, the pastoral concern it embodies and the possibilities of inculturation it envisages. Only then a legitimate process of inculturation can be done with investigation based on theology, history and pastoral.”
In the second process, ‘The Components of Culture’, he said that we have to understand what are the components first and he listed out three components of culture – values, patterns and institutions. He elaborated on these three and ended up saying that the process that leads to responsible inculturation requires us to study with great care the Baptismal Ordo and make a research into the culture of the community.
From process, he moved on to methods, explaining that there are the two methods of inculturating the baptismal ordo are using the method of organic progression and the method of dynamic equivalence. Inculturation of the baptismal Ordo also involved seven criteria, which, like the methods, he explained in length to the participants.
Seven criteria for inculturating the Baptismal Ordo were explained. The main foundation of the criteria, Fr Anscar said, is fidelity to and preservation of the core of the baptismal shape.
He explained “No inculturated Baptismal Ordo can dispense with washing in water and the invocation of the names of the Blessed Trinity. This is the premise for the work of embellishing the rite through cultural dialogue and integration. Thus any addition to the rite is meant to draw attention to the core. Cultural elements are integrated into the baptismal Ordo, not merely because they are meaningful and relevant to the local congregation, but above all because they illustrate to the local community the core of baptism.”
During his presentation, he kept stressing several times that inculturation does not create a new liturgical rite: rather, it dynamically translates the existing Roman rite into the culture and traditions of the local community or integrates new elements to the rite.
The first country to make the presentation was Indonesia. It was presented by Fr Boli Ujan Bernardus, who is a director of the Liturgical Commission of the Archdiocese of Merauke. He is also a lecturer in an Institution in Indonesia and teaches liturgy in the Seminary 3 months a year.
Fr Boji presented on ‘The Rite of Initiation in Indonesia’. Basically, there are not much inculturation in the city area but within the local tribes, inculturation occurs a lot. For example, the local tribe of the Marind people from a parish in Merauke, incorporates their traditional living into the preparation of Confirmation. The ‘local expert’ (head of traditions) together with the priest work together to train the candidates according to their traditional process of working hard and diligently to become mature persons, integrated into the community. For example, they trained the candidates how to use bow and arrow, to fish and to farm. In other words, the local expert transform the input into Christian teaching about working hard as an active participation in God’s work of creation and salvation actualized in their daily and concrete community life.
Another interesting aspect of Fr Boji’s presentation was the ‘Jungle Baptismal Celebration’ by
the Asmat Tribe from the Diocese of Agats. The Asmat are an ethnic group of New Guinea, residing in the Papua province of Indonesia. While maintaining the existing Roman baptismal rites, the Asmat incorporates their rich culture and tradition in the celebration.
“A fire wood is started to symbolize the light of the baptism fire.” said Fr. Boli Ujan Bernardus from Indonesia. “During the Rite of Penance, they first have the exorcism of evil spirit. The blessing of the fire is done with white lime and after the blessing, they burn special magical items.”
Interesting to note is that the sponsor of the baptized child present to the child an axe since an axe is an important tool of the Asmat tribe for eking out a living. The Church council present a live coal of fire to the parents to symbolise life support from the church.
A short video clip of how the ‘Jungle Baptism’ was conducted, captivated the participants’ attention.
Next to present was Singapore. What stands out from their presentation was the ‘Lunch Time RCIA’.
Fr J.J. Fenelon, 58, who is the spiritual director of the Singapore Archdiocese Liturgical Music Committee, explained that Lunch Time RCIA was initiated by Fr. Terence Pereira in 2004. who is the spiritual director of the Catholic Prayer Society (CPS). Ever since 2004, the CPS had been conducting the Lunch Time RCIA.
“Lunch time RCIA is for those who don’t have time to attend RCIA in the evening. There is a heavy screening for participants to make sure they really can’t attend the normal RCIA and that they are actively involve in parish life. There are only about 8 – 10 sessions that last 2 years. Each session began with 15 mins lunch, followed by 20 minutes input session. They have to go back to parish for the Breaking of Word and to be involved in the parish community.”
Fr Fenelon don’t see inculturation in liturgy in Singapore as he felt that there are too many races in Singapore. “We don’t know which culture to inculturate, so to play it safe, we just go with the basic Roman rites.”
During Cambodia’s presentation on Baptism, the participants found out that during the Profession of Faith, a Buddhism profession of faith was inculturated.
Fr Paul Lay from Cambodia pointed out that as all Cambodians are born as Buddhist, naturally during the Sacrament of Baptism, some Buddhism rites were inculturated in the Sacrament.
“The profession of faith by the candidates after listening to the Gospel, is modeled after the Buddhist profession of faith which is recited during Buddhist ceremonies.” said Fr Lay “The candidates holds 3 lighted sticks of incense and bows 3 times by placing the both palms upward and downward while professing their faith.”
During the evening, after a poolside dinner, hosted by the Bishop of Penang, Bishop Anthony Selvanayagam, the foreign delegates were taken on a ‘Penang by Night’ tour to the popular shopping and hawkers’ area, Gurney Plaza.
Day 3 see the presentation from Philippine, Thailand and Brunei.
Philippine, like all the other countries during their presentation, first gave a brief introduction of the country, the geography and the history. Philippine also gave a history of the first Baptism, before moving on to beliefs and practices connected with baptism in the current time.
Thailand was represented by two Catholic priests, one Lutheran priest and one Lutheran lay person. They presented on the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.
Fr. Robert Leong was the only representative from Brunei. He shared on how baptism in the Vicariate of Brunei Darussalam was conducted. He gave some detailed list of RCIA Catechetical schedules from 2008 to 2010
After lunch, the participants went on a tour to the nearby College General. On hand to greet them was the College’s rector, Fr. Gerard Theraviam. From College General, they moved to the Church of St Anne at Bukit Mertajam. After a tour round the spacious, sprawling grounds of St Anne, they were treated to seafood dinner, hosted by the parish priest, Msgr Stephen Liew.
On the final day, the presentations came from Taiwan and host country, Malaysia.
There was a nice surprise during Taiwan’s presentation, when Ms Kaiyi Maria Su gave a demonstration of two songs sung during baptism.
A session for discussion on the new ICEL Order of Mass was allocated after all the countries had presented. This was followed by unveiling of the new ALF logo in draft form. Delegates were request to contribute their ideas on how they want the logo to be designed.
The delegates came out with a final statement at the end of the forum (see attached). In the statement, the delegates affirmed that an in-depth study of the liturgy of baptism and the employment of technical expertise of cultural anthropologists need to be encouraged first before inculturating the Baptismal Ordo. A recommendation that during the process of inculturation, catechesis should involve the socio-cultural, religious and environmental situation of the community was also made by the delegates.
In conclusion, Bishop Anthony Lee, the chairman of AFL, thanked the Bishop of Penang for hosting the Forum and Fr. Francis Xavier and his team for organizing it. A framed certificated was presented to each of them.
Bishop Anthony Lee had been the chairman of AFL ever since 1997, and had attended 10 AFL. In an interview, he said that participation from delegates had been very enthusiastic and had been increasing over the years.
“AFL was started to give the opportunity to liturgists from SEA to share and clarify liturgical matters.” he said, “AFL is very beneficial to all as it expose the delegates to different liturgical practices from different countries. I look to AFL as an incentive for liturgists as from the sharing, they might get points from other countries where they can adapt to their own local needs. They will feel motivated to look into how to celebrate their own sacraments, to make liturgy more relevant to the people.”
When asked how to make sure that the people will accept inculturation, as some people might look to inculturation as abusing of the Roman rites, he said that there is a great need for catechesis. “You cannot inculturate overnight. It take a long time. You have to explain the signs and symbols to people. The element of strength, the relevancy to the rites and so on must be taken into account”
“Our Catholic Church enjoy stability and strength. This is a launching path for evangelization. The strength and stability comes from the sacrament of baptism.”
The next AFL will be held in Taiwan, with the topic ‘Inculturation of the Rites of Funeral.”
- by Lucia Lai
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COMMENTS FROM PARTICIPANTS
Teresa Chien, delegate from Taiwan:
“I had attended several AFL before and find it a very good experience. We learned from each other, and it is also an opportunity for me to meet old friends from other countries.”
Anna Lim, observer from Penang Diocese:
“This is my first time here. What I had learned had been very inspiring. I’m overwhelmed at meeting so many learned experts in the liturgy field. Attending the AFL had been a personal enrichment for me.”
Vincent Yong, delegate from Melaka-Johor Diocese:
Visiting the different countries to hear and share on liturgy help me a lot in as chairman of the Liturgical Commission. We learned from each other not only through the sharing of liturgical matters but in the course of our fellowship among each other during meal times and free times.
Msgr Florencio Salvador Jr, delegate from Philippine:
The forum had been very enriching. It is marvelous to come together to share the various traditions of each countries. I’m amazed at the various efforts done by different countries in terms of inculturation of baptism. At the same time, we realized we are not at the same level where liturgy is concerned. There is this ‘oneness’ among us and yet we are different.
Fr. Boli Ulan, delegate from Indonesia
Attending the ALF forum had been a very enriching experience for me. I learn from other countries how they conduct baptism and RCIA, and this in turn help me to prepare for our own Sacrament of the Baptism. I also enjoyed the fellowship and the praying together among my fellow brothers and sisters.
Last changed: Nov 10 2010 at 9:26 AM
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