Church Statements
Plenty Good Room: The Spirit and Truth of African American Catholic Worship (1990)
Plenty Good Room: The Spirit and Truth of African American Catholic Worship
The Black Liturgy Subcommittee, formed by the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy in 1984, was charged with addressing the liturgical issues and concerns of the African American Catholic community. One issue taken up early by the subcommittee was the adaptation of the liturgy to accommodate the style and eloquence of African American communal prayer. After studying the various styles of celebration found in predominantly African American parishes, the subcommittee drafted and, in 1988, published In Spirit and Truth: Black Catholic Reflection on the Order of Mass as a secretariat statement. That document presented the options and choices in the Order of Mass that are available to those wishing to marry the richness of the Roman Rite with the genius of the African American culture.
Now, as a companion to that document and in order to continue the dialogue necessary to approach any cultural adaptation of the liturgy, the Secretariats for the Liturgy and for Black Catholics offer Plenty Good Room: The Spirit and Truth of African American Catholic Worship. This document lays the theological foundation for cultural adaptation; frames the discussion of the interplay between cultural and liturgical celebration; examines the historical, cultural, and religious experience of African Americans; and distills several elements particular to African American worship.
Although this statement has been written with a particular view toward the African American Catholic community, the principles offered, especially in the chapters on “Liturgy and the Symbolic Reality,” “Liturgy and the Christ Event,” and “Liturgy and Culture,” are applicable to any culturally distinct community interested in understanding the relationship between culture and religious experience. The final four chapters deal directly with the African American religious experience. The ideas contained in these chapters can also serve as a model for discerning the heritage of a particular group and for discovering ways already available to ritualize appropriate cultural prayer practices.