The Advent Project
Convener: William H. Petersen (emeritus dean and professor of Bexley Hall Seminary, Fairport, NY) Seminar Participants: Jill B. Comings, Suzanne W. Duchesne, Elise A. Feyerherm, Laura Moore, William H. Petersen Visitor: Richard W. Hamlin
Description of Work Seminar members noted accomplishments of 2013, especially in publishing articles relative to the work of the seminar; assessed the growth and geographical and denominational distribution of parishes/congregations participating in an expanded Advent; modified the evaluation and data-gathering process; reviewed recent scholarly works pertinent to the goals of the seminar; defined directions and topics for future research; discussed further development of the Advent Project Seminar (APS) website (www.theadventproject.org) with our web master; and made provision for a “Director of Congregational Participation” on our board. In addition we heard and discussed the papers indicated below.
Papers and Presentations William H. Petersen, “On the Threshold of the Liturgical Year: Time and the Liminality of an Expanded Advent.” In supporting an expanded Advent congruent with the thematic scriptural emphases of both the RCL and OLM from the Sunday after All Saints’ Day to the last Sunday of Advent, the paper argues that Advent at the threshold of the liturgical year is a season of liminality not only for the initial incarnational cycle, but for the entire liturgical year. A renewed theological understanding of the relationship between “time” and “eternity” is set forth as foundational to understanding the eschatological character of the season as primary, i.e., the focus is principally on