Leitourgia

2018

Leitourgia annual conference 2018

Tønsberg / Norge, 6. – 9. November

Location: The conference takes place in our local conference hotel, Quality Hotel Klubben Tønsberg – Nedre Langgate 49, 3126 Tønsberg. The hotel is situated across the street from Tønsberg Cathedral.

Program:

A formal pre- or postconference will not be held this year.

Tuesday 6 November

14.00 — 15.30 Registration and coffee: Quality Hotell Klubben: “Steinsalen” (entrance Storgaten). HOTEL CHECK IN.

15.00 — 15.30 First time participants at Leitourgia are invited to a welcoming reception with the board and the leaders of the seminary groups. The location will be announced.

16.00 — 17.00 Public opening worship in Tønsberg Cathedral.

17.15 — 18.00 Official welcome in the Cathedral from Leitourgias´s president (ordförande), Jan Terje Christoffersen. Information about Leitourgia 2018. Short presentation of the seminary groups.  Introduction to the exhibition “In transit, no borders” by Tollef Thorsnes.

18.15 — 19.15 Dinner at Quality Hotel Klubben: Restaurant “871”.

19.30 — 20.30 Keynote lecture (1): Professor Bjørn Bandlien, University of South East Norway; ”Jerusalem at World´s End”. 

In 1191, crusaders from the coasts of Norway assembled in Tønsberg before embarking on the long journey to Jerusalem. The story is known to us through the book “Historia de profectione Danorum in Hierosolyman”, probably written by a Danish monk residing in the newly established St Olav’s monastery in Tønsberg. The crusade seems to relate to the building of the abbey church in the home town monastery. The abbey church was modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and must have provided a continual reminder for the crusaders and the citizens of Tønsberg of the importance of this building. Tønsberg was Jerusalem at World´s End. Few know this story better than Professor Bjørn Bandlien. He will take us back to the era when Christian faith and cultic life were established in the Nordic countries. He will also tell the story of the abbey; the largest circular church in the Scandinavia. The St Olav’s monastery is the place to start our liturgical pilgrimage of past and present.

20.30: Make and renew friendships at the waterfront …

Wednesday 7 November

08.30 — 09.00 Morning worship in Tønsberg Cathedral.

09.15 — 10.00 Keynote lecture (2): Professor Ida Marie Høeg, University of Agder (Kristiansand): “The Utøya massacre. Negotiating identity in interreligious funerals”

The terror attack on Utøya and Oslo 22 July 2011 changed the face of modern Norwegian history, documented this year in Erik Poppes movie “Utøya 22. juli”. Extremist right-wing political attitudes led to terror actions that took the lives of 77 people, mostly adolescents. The attacks, and the way the Norwegian people responded, have also been an important research field in succeeding years. This also involves understanding the role of religions and ritual actions during these critical days and weeks. This is the starting point for Ida Marie Høeg. She will discuss the role of the ritual actors in relation to the (state) church and its liturgies and the contributions from Islam. The paper examines the funeral ceremonies of three Muslim adolescents – Mona Abdinur, with a Somali background, and Bano Rashid and Rafal Jamil, with Kurdish backgrounds, who were victims of the terror attacks at the youth camp on the island of Utøya. Each of the three funerals in question represents heterogeneous ritual actions within a Christian and Muslim frameworks; they combine some actions, and add others. The important question in this respect is: Did the terror attacks and the subsequent interreligious funeral ceremonies create an arena where ritual actors, objects and actions transformed interactions and redesigned networks?

10.00 — 10.15 Refreshments and fruit

10.15  —  11.00 Keynote lecture (3): Associate professor Anne Hege Grung: “Inter-rituality: The practical turn of interreligious studies?

Inter-religious dialogue has become a mainstream activity within the Church of Norway in local communities and at a national level as a practice encouraged by the General Synod (“Kirkemøtet”). This can be regarded as an ecclesial response to the increasing religious and non-religious plurality in the population. To explore the possibilities and challenges of such pluralism through dialogue, often entails respecting and retaining the boundaries between the traditions, although encounters may establish common ground. The question remains: What happens when interreligious encounters occur through rituals and liturgies belonging to a specific religious tradition?                                                                               

11.00 — 11.30 Discussion                                                                                                     

11.30  — 11.45 Information about market place                                                   

12.00 — 12.30 Organ recital in Tønsberg Cathedral                                           

12.30 — 13.30 Lunch

Participants with formal affiliations with universities or other academic institutions are requested to have lunch together on this day

13.30 — 14.00 Market place

14.00 — 17.30 Seminary groups

17.30 — 19.15 Historic dinner at “Bagleren” – in an older part of hotel.Visitor, Terje Floberg: “Leader of Tønsberg of the Middle Ages” (annual festival).

19.30 — 21.00 Tønsberg library (near St Olav monastery)

”22nd July 2011: Reality and Fiction”. In cooperation with “The Literature Festival”.

21.00 — Make even more friends at the waterfront …

Thursday 8 November

8.30 — 09.00 Morning worship in the Tønsberg Cathedral.

9.15 — 10:00 Keynote lecture (4): Postdoctorial fellow Joar Haga (MF Norwegian School of Theology – Oslo): “Faith and identity: the lex credendi – lex orandi of modern man”.

“Tracing the Jerusalem code” is the name of a research programme at MF in Oslo, The Norwegian School of Theology. Throughout Christian history, the idea of Jerusalem as both earthly and celestial, has been formative to the Christian Church and European culture. Joar Haga has studied the development of religious life in the Nordic countries after the Reformation, and in particular how the idea of Jerusalem affected the society. In his keynote lecture, he will compare the formation of religious identity of those early years with the way that people build their religious world view today. How is faith and identity constructed today compared to those early years of Lutheranism?

10.00 — 10.30 Response and discussion.

10.30 — 10.45 Refreshments and fruit

10.45 — 11.30 Annual general meeting (Årsmötet) — for all participants

11.30 — 12.30 Lunch

12.30 Bus transport from hotel to Olsen Nauen

12.45 — 13.15 Visit at the Olsen Nauen bell foundry

13.15 — 14.00 Olsen Nauen concert: «Henning Andersen: violin and bells»

14.30 — 15.00 Refreshments at the hotel. Market place.

15.00 — 18.00 Seminary groups.

18.30 — 21.00 Banquet at Quality Hotell Klubben: restaurant «871»

The local bishop will participate.

21.00 — 22.00 Theater performance in the Cathedral — Stella Polaris: «Engler på tvers»

22.00 Participants are encouraged to exercise their gift of free will …

Friday November 9

08.30 — 09.00 Morning prayer in Tønsberg Cathedral.

9.00 — 10.15 Keynote lecture (5): Professor Jan-Olav Henriksen (MF Norwegian School of Theology – Oslo): “Church and liturgy in a multicultural society”. Discussion.

Professor Jan Olav Henriksen is among the most published researchers in Norway. He has specialised in studies on the conditions for religious faith in the post-secular age. He views religion from the perspective of activity and ritualisation. His theory of religion is informed by empirical studies, and his message to the church is to show more interest in the way people embody faith in their lives, rather than emphasising what they should believe or do. This lecture also adresse the discussion on liturgical renewal. How does the Ad fontes strategy meet the challenges of the secular?

10.15 — 10.30 Refreshments and fruit

10.30 — 12.00 Workshops – Workshops can be selected during registration on Tuesday

10.30 — 11.10  First workshop sessions (40 minutes)

11.10 — 11.15: Refreshment break

11.15 — 11.55 Second workshop sessions (40 minutes)

12.15  — 12.45 Pilgrim Mass in the Tønsberg Cathedral

13.00  — 14.00 First meeting of the new board