Manolis

Published by the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute, November 29, 2004

Robert Taft to Deliver Manolis Lectures at Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute

Berkeley, CA – Fr. Robert Taft, the world’s leading expert on Byzantine liturgy and former Vice-Rector of the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome will deliver the Paul G. Manolis Distinguished Lecture Series Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, January 18-20, 2005. The three lectures will be delivered at the Chapel of the Pacific School of Religion on the campus of the Graduate Theological Union beginning at 7:00 p.m. Fr. Taft’s lectures are titled, “Through their own eyes: Liturgy as the Byzantines saw it.”

Fr. Taft is internationally known for his study of Eastern Christian liturgy. He was Professor of Oriental Liturgy at the Pontifical Institute from 1970 to 200. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of Orientalia Christiana Periodica, as Associate Editor of Orientalia Christiana Analecta and Studia Liturgica, and as member of the Editorial Committee for liturgy of Concilium. He is presently Director of Publications at the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome. He serves on the editorial boards of many international journals specializing in liturgical studies.

In addition to serving as board member and/or consultant of several academic and ecclesiastical bodies, Fr. Taft is a founding member of both the North American Academy of Liturgy and of the Association of Jesuit Liturgists, and a member of the U.S. National Committee for Byzantine Studies, of the Society for Armenian Studies (retired 1999), and of the International Societas Liturgica. He was a member of the Governing Council of the latter society for ten years (1979-89), and its President from 1985-87.

Fr. Taft is a native of Providence, Rhode Island. He was ordained a priest in the Byzantine Slavonic (Russian) Rite in 1963. After receiving his M.A. in philosophy from Boston College, he spent three years as a missionary, teaching at Baghdad College, Baghdad, Iraq. He also holds degrees from Fordham University and Weston College (Mass.), the doctorate in Eastern Christian Studies from the Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome and postdoctoral studies at the University of Louvain, Belgium.

Among the many honors and awards he has received, in 2001 Fr. Taft was elected Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy, the highest honor the Academy confers on non-British academics in recognition of scholarly distinction. Five other Jesuits have held this distinction; Fr. Taft is the only US Jesuit in history to have been so honored.

The bibliography of his publications and writings comprises 680 works, written in English, French, and Italian, including 21 books, two of them co-authored, plus seven others edited in collaboration with other authors.

This is the second distinguished lecture series delivered under their new name, honoring churchman, community leader, and Director of the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute, Paul G. Manolis. The Distinguished Lecture series was inaugurated in 1988 as a way of bringing to Bay Area the best scholars from throughout the world to speak on topics of concern to the Orthodox Church. Many of the lectures have been published by InterOrthodox Press, the Institute’s publishing arm. The previous Distinguished Lecturers have been: His Grace Bishop Kalistos Ware (1988), Rev. John Meyendorff (1989), Jaroslav Pelikan (1990), His Eminence Metropolitan Methodios Fouyas (1992), Sir Dimitri Obolensky (1994), Lydia Black (1996), Christos Yannaras (1998), Kyriaki Karidoyanes FitzGerald (2000), and His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos (2003).

Anton C Vrame, Director
Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute
2311 Hearst Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94709
510-649-3450
paoi@gtu.edu



Volume 6 Number 50 - Tuesday, December 14th, 2004	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY