Review:
Towards a Theology of Liturgy: A Collection of Essays on West Syrian Liturgical Theology, Fr Dr KM Koshy Vaidyan, Kottayam: Mashikkoottu, 2023, 232 pp, ISBN 978-81-966011-5-7
Patrick Comerford
For four years I worked beneath a life-size, three-quarter length portrait of Bishop William Pakenham Walsh in my office in Overseas House, Rathmines, Dublin.
Bishop William Pakenham Walsh (1820-1902) was Deputy Secretary of CMS Ireland from 1851 to 1873. He later became Dean of Cashel (1873-1878) and Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin (1878-1897) in the Church of Ireland.
When I first met Father Koshy Vaidyan in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, he was pursuing post-graduate studies in my old alma mater, the Pontifical University in Maynooth, leading to his MTh and PhD, while I was lecturing in liturgy and church history in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute. Our conversation turned immediately to Bishop Pakenham-Walsh and his third son, Bishop Herbert Pakenham-Walsh (1871-1959), who features prominently in this welcome new collection of articles and studies.
While Father Koshy was a student n Maynooth, he also served as Parish Priest of Saint Thomas Indian Orthodox Parish in inner city Dublin (2006-2012). The parish was sharing Saint George’s and Saint Thomas’s Church in Cathal Brugha Street, and I got to know many of the priests and members of the congregation through my work there with the ‘Discovery’ Services. Since returning to India, Father Koshy has returned in Ireland at times to research Bishop Herbert’s life and work, so it was a delight to read the some of the fruits of his research in his new book.
The Indian Orthodox Church regards Bishop Herbert as a saint, and his grave is a centre of pilgrimage. He was a missionary in Bangalore (1907-1908), was the warden of Bishop Cotton Boys’ School in Bangalore (1907-1913), the first Anglican Bishop of Assam (1915-1924), and the Principal of Bishop’s College (Seminary) in Calcutta. The ashram he founded in retirement in 1936 sought to integrate Celtic spirituality and Orthodox spirituality, expressed in a life of worship, prayer, meditation and service. His ashram is now a monastery of the Indian Orthodox Church.
The influence of Indian liturgy on western liturgy through the liturgical reforms in the west in the 20th century should never be under-estimated, and the introduction – reintroduction – of the peace is a prime example of this influence and mutual interaction.
When the peace was introduced into the liturgy of the Church of Ireland in the 1980s, there were vocal objections from some people in the pews, and I still hear people say they feel that it is not very Anglican. But it predates the liturgical reforms introduced in the west through the Second Vatican Council. Indeed, the peace was first introduced into Anglican liturgies first in in India, where it was adapted from the Syrian Orthodox liturgy.
I was reading Father Koshy’s book in the weeks and days immediately before Christmas, and was delighted to be reminded once again how much we share and have in common. His journey through the Church Calendar is a reminder that all the churches share the same salvific story of the Birth, Life, Passion, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, and it was an Advent reminder that we journey together as we wait in hope for his coming again
His studies of the vision in the Orthodox ecclesiology of Alvares Mar Julius and the ecumenical vision of Dr Paulose Mar Gregorios are reminders that our liturgy provides the foundations for all our endeavours in ecumenism and our vision for church unity.
In this book, Father Koshy realises his hope of opening another door into the world of West Syrian Liturgical Theology and Eucharistic Theology. The Divine Liturgy is never static, rigid or fixed, and we must always keep before us the purpose and reality of all our celebrations of liturgy.
As Father Koshy reminds us, Bishop Herbert once offered this caveat about becoming too wedded to the formality of the liturgy: ‘Even the most beautiful words and actions can become formal and unreal, and the life that is lived outside the Church may contradict the worship within it. This is danger for the priest as well as for the people.’
(Rev Canon Professor) Patrick Comerford is an Anglican priest, a former lecturer in liturgy in the Church of Ireland Theological Institute and a former adjunct assistant professor in Trinity College Dublin. He lives in retirement in England.
This book review is published in February 2024 in The Journal of Malankara Orthodox Theological Studies (Orthodox Theological Seminary, Kerala, India), Vol viii No 2 (July-December 2023), pp 113-115.
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