On Saturday 16th December at 5.00 pm, the Orthodox Academy of Crete is hosting an international online conference on the subject of “Early Christmas Customs and Practice”. The aim is to facilitate open scholarly dialogue on the practices of worship at Christmas in the early centuries of Christianity, which are the foundations of the festival of Christmas as is it practised today.
The English monk and scholar known as the Venerable Bede is the subject of one of the talks at Saturday’s internet conference on early Christmas customs. Image: Stiftsbibliothek, Switzerland.
The subjects covered by the conference relate to the historical, archaeological and theological framework at an academic and ecumenical level. There will be five different talks:
– Dr Elisa Emaldi (Italy) will talk about worship practices relating to the Magi from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages.
– Professor Oleg Ulianov (Russia) will deal with the subject of the early representations of the Birth in Rome and the gifts of the Magi.
– The cleric Dr Gabriel Pistea (Romania) will present the subject of the baptism of Christ and how this shaped the early Christian church.
– Dr Linda Vogt Turner (Canada) will present material related to the Birth and the Bible.
– The conference will be closed by Dr John J. Gallagher (Ireland), talking about the texts of the Venerable Bede (673-735 AD) on the advent of Jesus and Christmas, in the Middle Ages.
The conference language will be English, but there will be simultaneous translation into Greek. The conference can be followed on Zoom by registering at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EeL6qbC8T_a1QfzMlqZg7g?fbclid=IwAR1qmKzrYyzrp3P36v49YTf4HohTJi584vHJPeQ8JY4Rvb5nxAL6bMrmCPI#/registration
It will also be streamed on the Orthodox Academy’s YouTube channel at: https://bit.ly/2J7COjq, where it will be found under the “Live” tab.