Liturgy Course Descriptions
Each course runs Monday – Friday for two weeks for a total of ten daily sessions, unless noted. Most courses are scheduled for 3 hour sessions including a break.
Block 1: 6 – 17 July 2026, weekdays
AL701 Architecture with Arts for Liturgy (IL diploma elective)
Prof. Daniel McCarthy OSB
Elective for IL diploma
The arrangement of a church for the celebration of liturgy both expresses outwardly the mystery at work in us inwardly and is constitutive of that experience. This course presents the principles of a Ritual Model for arranging churches as a basis for developing a critical assessment of a church and a vision of a church with greater synthesis.
3 hours daily including a break.
Fee: £300
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
AL702 Liturgical Theology and Art (IL diploma elective)
Emmaus O’Herlihy, OSB
Elective for IL diploma
Students will be equipped to develop an independent research project centred on a specific work of liturgical art. Through this, they will critically engage with the theological dimensions of liturgical praxis and explore how visual art contributes to communal worship and shapes ecclesial identity.
3 hours daily including a break.
Fee: £300
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
13 – 17 July 2026, weekdays
L718 Liturgies of the Early Church
em Prof. Thomas O’Loughlin
Elective for IL diploma
This one-week course may be taken alone, or it may be taken in conjunction with the one-week course L702 Liturgy in the West: History and context. This course covers the earliest centuries of the primitive church, while the other course (L702) considers the rest of liturgical history until our day.
Taken together, these two weeks considers the two major parts of the Eucharist; the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist and is designed to lead the reader through the major periods of cultural and theological change in the Church particularly in the West up to the present. We wish clearly to indicate the changes in the liturgical forms throughout history and to present the theological understandings of the Eucharist in the different periods. In this way it is hoped that readers will understand both what the Church teaches and the reasons given for these teachings.
3 hours daily including a break.
You may enrol in this course only or in both one-week courses.
Fee: £150 per week
A fuller description of the course is available here,
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address
13 – 24 July 2026, weekdays
L702 Liturgy in the West: History and Context
Prof. Stefan Geiger OSB
required for IL diploma
This course consists of two parts:
1) The one-week course L718: Liturgies of the Early Church taught by Thomas O’Loughlin, which covers the earliest centuries of the primative church.
2) This week taught by Prof. Stefan Geiger which considers the rest of liturgical history until our day.
Taken together, these two weeks aim to provide insight into the origin and developments of the liturgy in the West up to the present day. Students reflect on the different cultural periods of society and how these shape the liturgy of the Catholic Church and how the liturgy in turn influences the culture. Students examine both the historical and liturgical record and the recent debates among Catholic liturgists concerning the past and future development of the Roman Catholic liturgy. The course will proceed by means of a chronological study of the major periods of the liturgy of the Catholic Church in the West and beyond.
3 hours daily including a break.
Fee: £300 for both weeks
A fuller description of the course is available here,
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address.
Saturday, 11 July 2026
St Bede Annual Lecture in Liturgy
Abbot Primate Jeremias Schröeder, OSB
Title yet to be determined
to be given on
the Sollemnity of our Holy Father St Benedict
Sunday, 11 July 2026
beginning at 2.30 pm
Event held at
the Ealing Abbey
2, Marchwood Crescent
Ealing, London W5 2DZ
A map is available here.
Fuller description available here.
Contact Clare Cogswell at this email address.
Block 2: 20 – 31 July 2026, weekdays
Prof. Daniel McCarthy OSB
Required for IL diploma
At the end of the course each student will be prepared: 1) to interpret a liturgical prayer and its rite using a selection of analytical tools and liturgical dimensions, 2) describe the proper contribution of each analytical tool and liturgical dimension, for the interpretation of a specific text or rite, 3) situate another person’s interpretation of a liturgical prayer or rite according to these interpretative tools and liturgical dimensions.
3 hours daily including a break.
Cost: £300
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Prof. Stefan Geiger, OSB
Elective for IL diploma
This course considers the two major parts of the Eucharist; the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist and is designed to lead the reader through the major periods of cultural and theological change in the Church particularly in the West up to the present. We wish clearly to indicate the changes in the liturgical forms throughout history and to present the theological understandings of the Eucharist in the different periods. In this way it is hoped that readers will understand both what the Church teaches and the reasons given for these teachings.
3 hours daily including a break.
Fee: £300
A fuller description of the course is available here.
Contact Clare, the Registrar at this linked email address
FAQs: Frequently asked questions about the summer session
A listing of our courses for the summer of 2025 here.
© James Leachman, O.S.B., page updated by DM on 8 December 2025.