Nuwe tendense buite-om die erediens van die 21ste eeu. ʼn Beskrywende liturgie-historiese en hedendaagse verkenning

Abstract

The main aim of this article is a description of both ancient and nascent ritual-liturgical developments and to ask the question whether these descriptions can assist in identifying possible worship trends in years to come. In order to focus the inquiry the article looks at the presence of crosses within the context of worship settings, but mainly as these rituals are performed outside of the traditional spaces of Sunday morning worship and church buildings. The two settings which form the focus of this article are firstly the early Medieval period in the history of liturgy and secondly the current South African ritual landscape. These descriptions are valuable for liturgical studies in South Africa as an attempt at answering the basic practical theological question, namely “what is going on?” Only after an attempt at answering this first question can the second question be posed, namely “why is this going on?” The article concludes with some preliminary observations with regards to the latter question which could serve as a preliminary attempt at identifying future worship trends.