Mass of the land of the Holy Spirit
A timeline by Carmel Pilcher RSJ
[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]Following Vatican Council II, missionaries in the Broome and Darwin Dioceses were already adapting the liturgy for their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander assemblies. This is the story of how Mass texts in aboriginal languages came to be.
1971–1977
Preparation for and celebration of the Australian Aboriginal Mass in Melbourne during the Eucharistic Congress in February 1973.
4 October 1972. The Mass is sent to Rome for approval.
1 November 1972. Cardinal Bugnini (Secretary of the Worship Office) writes to Cardinal Knox (Archbishop of Melbourne) with permission to use the Mass with a few modifications.
30 May 1973. Permission is granted for the Diocese of Broome to experiment with a special liturgy for Aborigines, with a request for a report after a suitable length of trial.
27-31 August 1973. Australian Episcopal Conference Minutes, 80.
The Holy See had granted approval for use in the Diocese of Broome of the Mass prepared for the Australian Aboriginal Liturgy at the Melbourne International Eucharistic Congress. It was proposed that the bishops avail themselves of the faculties granted by the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship on 21st March 1972 and approve the use throughout Australia of that Mass for Aborigines (with the exception of the Eucharistic Prayer) whenever they consider it would promote the pastoral welfare of Aborigines in their dioceses.
MOTION: That the Introductory Rite, Offertory Rite, Communion Rite and Concluding Rite of the Mass used at the Aboriginal Liturgy of the Melbourne International Eucharistic Congress be approved for use in Australia whenever it would promote the pastoral welfare of Aborigines. CARRIED.
August 1977. Bishop’s Commission for Aborigines is set up.
Resolution 4. We recognise that Aboriginal Groups would greatly benefit from a liturgy and prayer forms more attuned to their religious genius and adapted to their conditions of living.
1978–2016
THE LA GRANGE TRANSLATION OF THE MASS
The Missa Kimberley originated at La Grange (now Bidyadanga) in Western Kimberley. At the time at La Grange, five major language groups made up the community: Garadyari, Nyangumada, Yulbaridya, Dyuwaliny and Mangala.
Beginning soon after the Second Vatican Council, the late Fr Kevin McKelson, Pallottine missionary and linguist, worked with the late Tommy Dodds and other Aboriginal elders from the five tribes who had settled in the area. Together they carefully interpreted the English version of the Mass of the Roman Rite in each of the five languages spoken in the community.
The unique methodology used for the preparation of the texts by Kevin McKelson needs some explanation. McKelson sat with elders from these tribes (including Tommy Dodds). They took the Roman Missal and turned the texts into thought patterns and content that would be understood by the people. This was done orally, of course, but then McKelson, a skilled linguist, wrote down the texts in each of the five languages.
Kevin McKelson also consulted with liturgical scholars, local and visiting social sociologists and anthropologists, and even toured the world visiting indigenous communities.
For forty years McKelson continued to refine the Mass with the support of the diocesan bishop (initially John Jobst 1959-1995). The Missa Kimberley, as it eventually came to be known, was used extensively in the Broome Diocese, the Darwin Diocese and beyond.
September-October 1977. Correspondence between Kevin McKelson and Cardinal James Knox in Rome, with supportive letters from Bishop Jobst, set up a meeting in in Rome.
5 December 1977. McKelson meets with Cardinal Knox, Prefect of the Congregation for Sacraments and Divine Worship in the Vatican. He is well received and the cardinal said he would set up a Commission on Aboriginal Liturgy in WA with the Abbott of New Norcia in the chair.
7 December 1977. The Cardinal sends McKelson this letter:
Thank you very much for your visit last Monday. I was pleased to have had the opportunity of meeting you and hearing of your work among the Aborigine people. As I pointed out, in the matter of liturgical adaptation, the considerable and important work involved, according to existing norms, would need to be taken under the auspices of the local Bishops and I suggest that the matter be taken up with the Bishops of Western Australia through Bishop Jobst. The material eventually prepared could then be forwarded to the Congregation through the secretariat of the Australian Episcopal Conference, and we should do whatever is possible to be of assistance.
28 March 1978. Fr Kevin McKelson prepares ‘A Case for Inculturation among Australian Aborigines’. Copies are sent to Archbishop Goody (Perth) and Bishop Leo Clarke (bishops’ liturgy committee) among others. Clarke replies saying in part, A study of the principles in adapting the liturgy for use among Aborigines as outlined in the document makes very interesting reading. I shall bring the submission to the notice of the National Liturgical Commission at the next meeting which is set down for April 18-19.
15-21 May 1978. Australian Episcopal Conference Commission Minutes, 103.
Texts for Mass for Aboriginal People. The Episcopal Liturgical Commission referred to the approval given by the Holy See, for use in the Diocese of Broome for a period of three years, to the English and local language texts of a Mass for Aborigines which was, in essence, that used at the International Eucharistic Congress in Melbourne. For pastoral reasons, these texts had been revised and improved and a further experimental period of five years was considered necessary.’
MOTION: That the Holy See be requested to approve, for use in the Diocese of Broome and for a period of five years, ad experimentum, these revised and improved Mass texts. For 32. Against 0. CARRIED.
7 June 1978. Fr Patrick Doherty (secretary of Australian Episcopal Conference) asks for two or three copies of the text of the English and Aboriginal language Mass so that an application for approval can be sent to Rome.
29 June 1978. Doherty asks McKelson to let Bishop Jobst know that the ‘request for approval will be sent to Rome within a few days’.
29 June 1978. Fr Patrick Doherty writes to Cardinal Knox in Rome on behalf of Cardinal Clancy (president) requesting a further five years of experimentation for use in the Broome diocese. No response to that request can be found in the ACBC archives.
21 May 2001. Apostolic Nuncio, Bishop Francesco Canalini visits Balgo and witnesses the Mass in Kukatja. The parish priest reports that he is pleased.
14 March 1996. Bishop Saunders writes to Kevin McKelson suggesting that the time has come to formalise the Kimberley Aboriginal Liturgy, both for communio with the Holy See and to enable future missionaries to receive formation in its use and application. He commissions McKelson to prepare a text in language with an English translation to be presented to Rome in ‘an authentic and convincing manner’.
In 1997, after consultation with pastors and practitioners on matters such as posture, gesture, seating and ritual gestures, a definitive form of the Missa Kimberley is submitted to the bishop.
In 2003, the Missa is further discussed and modified. The bishop wishes to present it to the Australian bishops and then to Rome. Fr McKelson continued his work on the Missa until he retired in 2006. He died in 2011.
2015–2018
THE MASS OF THE LAND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (MLHS)
In 2014, Carmel Pilcher is invited by the Bishop of Broome to prepare a single version of the Missa Kimberley. She begins by visiting various remote communities, listening to their stories, and collecting all the versions in use.
Carmel then calls the first meeting of some interested liturgists, who generously agreed to be part of the project. Those on the original committee were Tom Elich, David Orr, Barry Craig, the late Joan Henricks and Carmel Pilcher (chair).
In 2015, this reference group comes together for a 2-day meeting in Brisbane. They are joined by Bishop Paul Bird who generously gives a day of his holidays to assist.
The team sets about preparing a version of the Missa that would be liturgically acceptable. This is eventually renamed the Missa Terra Spiritus Sancti, the Mass of the Land of the Holy Spirit. While working on the project, Carmel Pilcher continues to visit Broome and consult and update leaders.
In 2018, Liturgy Brisbane publishes the Missa and generously agrees to cover the cost for this publication, which they have continued to do.
In 2018, the priests of Broome are called for a weeklong liturgical formation workshop in Mirilinki, run by Barry Craig, David Orr and Carmel Pilcher. At the end of this workshop, the MLHS is ritually presented to the priests and their communities, in the Diocese of Broome by two elders from the Bidyadanga parish: Maureen Yanawana and Madeleine Jadai.
All then celebrate the MLHS for the first time with the Warmun community. The MLHS is well received and, ever since that time, continues to be used by the faith communities in the diocese. Following its publication the Missa moves across the nation and is now celebrated in various Aboriginal Catholic Communities.
2022–2023
December 2022. The reference group, now expanded to include Tom Elich, David Orr, Barry Craig, John FitzHerbert, Clare Schwantes, Evelyn Parkin, Cynthia Rowan and Carmel Pilcher, meets again for two days in Brisbane. The group decides to work towards the possibility that the MLHS be approved by the ACBC for use in the Diocese of Broome.
In 2023, Bishop Michael Morrissey, Episcopal Administrator of the Broome diocese, is preparing a request for the National Liturgical Council proposing that the MLHS be approved for use in the Broome Diocese and, if favourably received, be endorsed by the ACBC at the Plenary meeting in November.
September 2023. The reference group meets to finalise the material needed for the BCL to take this project forward. Various versions in local language are to be collated and background material prepared.
May 2024. It is hoped that the ACBC will move on this question at their plenary meeting.
Dr Carmel Pilcher RSJ has a special interest in areas of liturgical inculturation. This article first appeared in Brisbane’s Liturgy News, and is reprinted here with permission of the Brisbane Liturgy Office. [/s2If]
