Current liturgy in the old church

The invitation from the Centre for Theology and Art has been accepted by leading experts in the fields of theology, architecture, art history, museology, and heritage conservation: Stefan Kraus from the Museum of Arts of the Cologne Cathedral, Walter Zahner from the Munich Society for Christian Art, historian Dušan Foltýn, liturgist Jan Kotas, and architect Josef Pleskot. The conference is under the patronage of the Archbishop of Prague Dominik Duka OP, who will also participate in the conference.

The conference with international participation at the Catholic Theological Faculty in Prague will attempt to reflect on the issues of new liturgical arrangements in the spaces of historic churches. To what extent can historical furnishings be respected without compromising current living worship? How can the space be newly organized without damaging the fundamental idea of the original architecture? Is it possible to activate elements that today seem dysfunctional, such as the pulpit? How should we approach the issue of pews versus chairs? Do we need to deepen our knowledge of historical symbols, or should we express new liturgical gestures that reflect the life and attitudes of contemporary man?

Among theologians and pastors, the approach to the liturgical adaptations of historic churches is often very schematic, sometimes to the point of being mechanical, despite all proclamations about developing tradition. Heritage conservation usually views these new arrangements as a necessary evil, the scope of which should be minimized as much as possible. Many modern realizations unfortunately confirm this perspective. Among architects, the topic is usually relegated to categorizing non-creative minor interior projects or the design of a few predetermined luxury "furnishing objects." The unconvincing results are, therefore, caused by a cumulative sum of emerging incongruences, compromises, and temporary solutions...

According to the conference organizers from the Centre for Theology and Art at KTF UK, new adaptations of liturgical space or the revision of often hastily executed modifications after the Second Vatican Council are the main task in contemporary sacred architecture. This is nothing less than whether the church will become a historic museum or, conversely, a living space pointing to the future, foundational to Christianity and Western civilization as a whole.

The conference will begin on Thursday, October 20, 2011, at 19:30 in the baroque refectory of the Dominican monastery at St. Giles in Prague with a panel discussion of invited guests, which should identify the main points of the problem. It will continue at the Catholic Theological Faculty of Charles University on Friday, October 21, starting at 9:30 AM with a series of lectures, followed by ample time for questions and discussions.

CONFERENCE PROGRAM:

Contemporary Liturgies in an Old Church - Identifying Problems
panel discussion at Dominikánská 8
Jan Kotas, Stefan Kraus, Walter Zahner, moderated by Norbert Schmidt
Baroque refectory of the Dominican monastery at St. Giles in Prague, entrance at Jilská 7a
Thursday, October 20, 2011, 19:00

Contemporary Liturgies in an Old Church
international conference at KTF UK
Friday, October 21, 2011, starting at 9:30 AM

Prokop Brož (Dean of KTF UK)
opening greeting

Walter Zahner (DG, Munich - Regensburg)
Sacred Architecture and Liturgies After the Second Vatican Council
Possibilities and Limits of Transforming the Church Space

Jan Kotas (KTF UK, Prague)
Liturgy as a Catalyst for Change

Dušan Foltýn (CMS Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and UK, Prague)
Living Heritage

Josef Pleskot (AP atelier, Prague)
Three Churches

Stefan Kraus (Kolumba, Cologne)
ars celebrandi
Thoughts on Art and Liturgy

Final panel discussion
Dominik Duka OP, Dušan Foltýn, Jan Kotas, Stefan Kraus, Josef Pleskot, Walter Zahner

Dominik Duka OP (Archbishop of Prague and Primate of the Czech Lands)
closing remarks

the conference is moderated by: Norbert Schmidt (CTU at KTF UK, Prague)


The Thursday debate in the baroque refectory at St. Giles will be translated consecutively.
Due to limited seating at KTF UK, we recommend reserving in advance for simultaneous translation at: ctu@ktf.cuni.cz

The conference Contemporary Liturgies in an Old Church will be followed by a colloquium Church - Liturgical Space - Heritage organized by the Institute of Ecumenical Studies at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of Charles University, which will be held on Saturday, November 26, 2011, in the baroque refectory of the Dominican monastery at St. Giles in Prague. Both conferences will be accompanied by an exhibition in the Academic Church of St. Salvator near Charles Bridge featuring more than twenty graduation projects on the theme of sacred architecture, predominantly from the School of Architecture of Professor Emil Přikryl at the Prague AVU.

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Mons. Dominik Duka OP (* 1943) is a Dominican and has been the Archbishop of Prague since 2010.

Mgr. Dušan Foltýn (* 1966) is a historian specializing in the culture and art of the Middle Ages, particularly in the history of orders and the history of monastic architecture. He is a leading Czech monasteriologist. Since 2002, he has been working at the Centre for Medieval Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and teaches regional history at the Faculty of Education of Charles University.

ThLic. Jan Kotas (* 1970) serves as an assistant professor at the Department of Pastoral and Legal Studies at KTF UK, specializing in liturgy. He also dedicates himself to Byzantine liturgy, which he regularly serves at the Church of St. Cosmas and Damian in the Emmaus Monastery in Prague. Since 2010, he has been the dean of the Chapter of All Saints at Prague Castle.

Dr. Stefan Kraus (* 1960) has been the director of Kolumba - the Museum of Arts of the Archdiocese of Cologne since 2008. Dr. Kraus is a significant German art historian and curator, author of numerous texts and books. He has been working at the Kolumba Museum since 1991; in addition to developing the museum's conception and organizing exhibitions, he was part of the core team that prepared the new museum building designed by architect Peter Zumthor, which opened in September 2007. The Kolumba Museum is the focus of the new review Salve 2/2011.

Ing. arch. Josef Pleskot (* 1952) is a leading Czech architect, having founded his AP atelier in 1991. This design office deals with a broad range of tasks from initial urban-architectural concepts to the realization of buildings across a wide spectrum of typological types. Among his most famous realizations are the building of the Sonberk Winery (2008); the headquarters of ČSOB in Prague Radlice (2007, main prize Grand Prix OA 2008; Building of the Year 2007); the reconstruction of the Castle Brewery in Litomyšl (2006); the Natural Path in the Deer Moat and the Passage of the Rampart of the Powder Bridge in the Prague Castle area (2003, Brick Award 2004).

Dr. Walter Zahner (* 1961) is a leading European expert on the relationship between art, architecture, and liturgy. He has published a considerable number of scholarly articles and books on this topic. He currently works at the Institute for Adult Education at the Regensburg Diocese. He is the chair of the artistic commission in the Diocese of Würzburg and the chair of the German Society for Christian Art in Munich. Dr. Walter Zahner compiled the Czech edition of Roman Guardini’s text On the Essence of the Work of Art (Triáda/CTU 2009).