East - West Studies

Common to both east and west is the need to foster a deep understanding of liturgy and the liturgical environment, rooted in the Scripture and tradition of the Apostolic Church, and manifested in many nations and cultures, globally. Paradoxically, the more true we are to our own tradition and - within it - find the apostolic vigour of the first Christians, the closer we will be to that unity for which Christ prayed. Very often the first point of healing a broken relationship is to communicate, and to listen both to the others insight, and their legitimate woundedness - those wounds which Christ chose to bear on the Cross. Therefore at the opening of the Benedictine Rule we find those words “AUDIRE: LISTEN.” This page therefore gives short extracts from studies of both eastern and western origin which will be found in full on the Associates pages.





Dom Dyfrig Harris OSB
with the Belmont icon group

Sacramental and Liturgical life in the Eastern Churches: Fr. Dyfrig Harris OSB

Fr. Dyfrig Harris OSB ‘ The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council recognised and acknowledged that the Eastern Churches.....had preserved the sense of the awesome and inexpressible Mystery that surrounds and connotes the celebrative act and that in their liturgical texts and in their whole spirit, the Eastern Churches maintained the sense of liturgy with formulae that were both rich and meaningful as unceasing doxology, as petition for forgiveness and as uninterrupted epiclesis. They recognised that the Eastern Churches possessed a spirituality drawn directly from Sacred Scripture and, consequently, a theology less subjected to strictly rational categories and that for historical and cultural reasons, the Eastern Churches had maintained a more direct continuity with the spiritual atmosphere of Christian origins, not as an indication of stagnation and backwardness but rather because of the Eastern Churches precious fidelity to the sources of salvation.....

‘ Deeply rooted in the liturgical thinking of the Eastern Churches is the concept that in the Divine Liturgy we ascend with Christ into the glory of the kingdom and it is through the Divine Liturgy that the beauty of that kingdom is made manifest among us here on earth.’

Continue reading this article on the Associates pages.


Iconography & Liturgy:
Fr. Michael Jones-Frank

Fr. Michael was parish priest in Clifton RC Diocese, until his death in 2001.

‘The fundamental form of liturgical imagery is the ritual itself. The function of other forms of imagery, including architecture and visual art, is to elucidate, complement and develop the significance of the ritual that the assembly is enacting. As does the ritual itself, other forms of liturgical imagery reveal the presence of “all the blessings of the heavenly places” that are unfolded through the liturgy celebrated..... Having understood ritual for so many centuries as rubrics required to be enacted under pain of grave sin, we are now in the process of rediscovering something of it’s essential nature. This rediscovery of ritual as the visible enactment of the mysteries - of a network of symbols, of dramatised metaphors probing, embodying and transmitting the sacred mysteries - means that if we are to give more than casual attention to the salvific action of God among his people, then we need to enact these symbolic and sacramental actions as fully as we are able. We must draw out the various dimensions of the divine operation within us.


Father Michael Jones-Frank

‘Christian ritual is a form of prayer that makes our own the Word of God. Ritual is the fullest form of prayer and it becomes, through the action of the Holy Spirit, the vehicle by which God engages our entire being even more deeply in fullness of life...’ It is intended to make this article, in sections, available on the Associates pages soon. Fr. Michael suggest practical ways of developing the sacred geography of the church building.



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