Living Liturgy, the report presented to the Conference of Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, prepared and edited by Msgr Anthony Boylan (St Pauls Publication, Slough 1981).

The most important sections of it were published in Notitiae 17 (1981) at the time.

The Report itself remains relevant and useful resource; it provides a national strategy for Liturgical Formation based on a close analysis of the recommendations contained in Sacrosanctum Concilium. The strategy was very well thought out.  It recommends a “National Institute of Pastoral Liturgy” for an intake of between 8 and 12 students per year for a one or two-year course (p. 66).

Shortly after the report was published and then discussed and approved by the bishops, for almost a year the whole Church in E&W and Scotland became focused upon preparations for the visit of HH Pope John Paul II.  Perhaps everything that had gone before the visit was overshadowed by the event, for the report was not implemented.

Some years later, around 1992,  there was an attempt, along with Anglicans, at establishing a national liturgical institute, named the Institute of Liturgy and Mission, at Sarum College in Salisbury, and it seems to have lasted until 2002, when the last director, Mark Earey left Sarum College. This marked the “effective ending of the Institute for Liturgy and Mission”, (http://www.sarum.ac.uk/199, Mark Earey, February 2002).

© James Leachman, O.S.B.,  17 February 2012