Lex Orandi
A New Liturgical Studies Journal
First issue coming January 2027. Expect a finished website accepting article submissions beginning May 2026.
Mission
Lex Orandi is a multilingual, open-access, double-blind peer reviewed academic journal committed to furthering liturgical renewal in a complex and evolving world. Pan-ecclesial, pan-methodological, and public-facing, Lex Orandi makes excellent liturgical scholarship accessible to all. It does so in order to contribute to the good of worshipping communities worldwide and to help advance the cause of Christian unity.
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Vision
Lex Orandi supports all worshipping communities undertaking the ongoing renewal of liturgy through historical and theological research, communal discernment, and spiritual formation. Consequently, it is committed to the study of liturgy in all its forms: all periods of history, all churches past and present, and from every viewpoint. In order to maintain this commitment, the journal can be characterized as standing on three equally-indispensable pillars. This means that Lex Orandi is pan-ecclesial, pan-methodological, and public-facing.
Lex Orandi's pan-ecclesial character is (a) in continuity with the journal’s roots in the Liturgical Movement and (b) in keeping with its ecumenical commitments. Consequently, this also means that there is no ideological litmus test for members of Lex Orandi’s editorial team; likewise, it welcomes scholars and topics from a variety of doctrinal perspectives. The editorial team judges scholarship only on the basis of its rigor and quality, supported by a double-blind peer review. Though Lex Orandi has no institutional affiliation with or oversight from any church, denomination, confession, or religious sect, the journal is inspired by the liturgical worship of Jewish and Christian history and seeks to improve the worship of communities today.
Lex Orandi’s pan-methodological character is (a) in continuity with its roots in the journals of the Liturgical Movement and (b) attempts to respond to the needs of a rapidly-changing field. Looking at similar questions from multiple angles allows fresh air to circulate on old problems and infuses new life. It also clarifies intra-ecclesial or intramural divides when seen against problems affecting the broader world. In the effort to publicize scholarship across a wide field, Lex Orandi is committed to publishing in a variety of languages common to contemporary scholars of liturgy: English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German, as well as others on a case-by-case basis.
Committed to the principle that information should not be available only to those with access to the libraries of elite institutions, Lex Orandi is also “public-facing.” This means that anyone with the proper training to read it can access the liturgical scholarship published in the pages of Lex Orandi. This includes not only scholars and pastoral practitioners, but also – and ideally – any person who is liturgically-active and self-educated. Its readership includes independent scholars and those in the global South, as well as those with academic libraries. Lex Orandi’s commitment to public-facing scholarship is in keeping with the best practices of the historical Liturgical Movement. The Liturgical Movement’s impetus for renewal/reform occurred largely through the convergence of scholarship with the grassroots work of carrying ideas into the praxis of local communities.
What makes this public-facing commitment possible is Lex Orandi’s open-access format. In an age where information literacy is becoming more and more prized, publishing scholarship online in an open-access format allows the dissemination of Lex Orandi in a way that is completely cost-free for both readers and authors. That is, Lex Orandi is available globally wherever a reader has internet access. The online, open-access format also frees authors and editors from strictures such as page length, word limit, and even issue size, unlike traditional printed journals. Lex Orandi is free to publish as much of the highest-quality scholarship as possible when it becomes available.
Lex Orandi’s public-facing character also underscores the journal’s commitment to academic freedom. Though Lex Orandi is supported by the annual contributions of academic and charitable institutions, its only oversight comes in the form of an advisory council and editorial board chosen from leading scholars in the field. Though Lex Orandi is committed to the good of worshipping communities, it considers those communities themselves to be the best judges of how to best implement the scholarship reflected in its pages. Lex Orandi is not housed at an academic institution or supported by an ecclesial organization, which is unique among journals in the field. Instead, Lex Orandi is incorporated as a non-profit organization with a board of directors composed of members of the editorial board. This ensures freedom of inquiry to editors, authors, reviewers, and readers. Commitment to these safeguards allows Lex Orandi to serve its mission, which is the better worship of the people of God and the support of pastoral ministers who seek to renew and reform their worship.
Who We Are
Lex Orandi was founded as a conscious attempt to further the precious heritage of the Liturgical Movement. Inspired by the academic journals of the Belgian and American liturgical movements, Lex Orandi preserves their defining characteristics: a commitment to the good of people worshipping God, furthered by methodological experimentation, ecumenical openness, and intellectual honesty.
Also in continuity with the Liturgical Movement, Lex Orandi rests on the conviction that the promotion and distribution of high-quality liturgical scholarship is a fundamental means toward the pastoral renewal of the liturgy. The goal of Lex Orandi is to expand the Liturgical Movement’s vision to a world that is infinitely more diverse and complex than when that movement began.
Lex Orandi began as a dream that it is possible to promote rigorous liturgical scholarship from across the entire ecclesial spectrum, using a proliferation of academic methodology as an aid to liturgical renewal. It yearned for this scholarship to be made universally accessible and free for all, to promote the liturgical discernment and formation of local communities worldwide.
In continuity with past generations of scholars, Lex Orandi allows the academic study of liturgy to contribute to ongoing renewal and reform of the liturgy. Finally, it applies the study of liturgy to combat polarization and further unity, both within churches and among them.
Our organizing committee:
Kimberly Belcher
University of Notre Dame
Joris Geldhof
University of Notre Dame
Sam Goyvaerts
Tilburg University
Tom McLean
St Patrick's Pontifical University
Assisted by Matthew Cortese, S.J., and Alexander Turpin.
History
Lex Orandi continues the legacy of one of the flagship journals in the field of Liturgical Studies. This journal – Questions Liturgiques – was founded in the nascent years of the Liturgical Movement and quickly became a polestar for the spread of liturgical renewal. Inaugurated in 1910 by the liturgical pioneer Lambert Beauduin, O.S.B., QL is thus intimately linked to the beginnings of the Liturgical Movement in Europe. For over a century, the review was affiliated with his monastery, Mont-César Abbey – now called Keizersberg – in Leuven, Belgium.
Not long after the founding of Questions, the liturgical renewal was brought to the United States by another Benedictine monk, Virgil Michel, O.S.B. To further liturgical renewal for English-language audiences, especially in the North American churches, he established the journal Orate Fratres in 1926, later known as Worship. For the duration of its existence, Worship was published by the monks of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota.
The Liturgical Movement aimed to capacitate lay people to participate in the liturgy, both through pastoral formation and by scholarly research into liturgical history. These efforts eventually led to the “official” recognition that the best way to renew participation in the liturgy was to reform it, that is, revise its rites, prayers, and structures. The Second Vatican Council’s Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963) enshrined the core principle of the Liturgical Movement as the goal of its program of reform: “full, conscious, and active participation” of the baptized people in the liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium #14).
The Liturgical Movement thus found its logical consequence in the liturgical reforms initiated after the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) in the Roman Catholic church. Unexpectedly – at least to many at the time – mainline Protestant scholars and pastors contributed to and benefitted from Questions Liturgiques and other liturgical journals across Europe and the United States. The ideas promoted in them were influenced and received by Eastern Orthodox thinkers and congregations, as well.
Much of the credit for the international explosion of the ideals of the Liturgical Movement can be ascribed to those who edited, authored, and disseminated QL and other periodicals aimed at liturgical renewal. As offshoots of the English-, French-, and German-speaking liturgical movements, these journals were characterized by their openness to methodological experimentation. They were also driven by an ecumenical vision that grew in potency over the decades from their very inception, unlike the practitioners of the Liturgical Movement in other parts of the world. And their existence forever associated the field with the pastoral and academic work of (Roman Catholic) monks of the Benedictine Confederation.
Lex Orandi is inspired by the work of these journals. It honors the contributions of generations of scholars and monastics affiliated with Keisersburg and other abbeys, but is not affiliated with any monastic community.
A Changing Field
At the same time, the field of Liturgical Studies has shifted drastically since the beginning of the Liturgical Movement over one hundred years ago. In recent decades, Liturgical Studies has experienced a disconnect from the monastic context in which it arose. Across the globe today, the energy for liturgical study and renewal resides largely in university settings and institutes for pastoral formation. Additionally, methods used in the field of Liturgical Studies have multiplied, so that the term “Liturgical Studies” no longer designates one way of studying the liturgy. Instead, it might be said to encompass a multifaceted, multidisciplinary, and loosely-affiliated group of scholars working across the globe. Lex Orandi provides a forum for all these scholars to benefit from one another’s work.
Further, the social and ecclesial conditions for the study of liturgy have changed. Even as the academic field has expanded across disciplines, the ecclesial situation has also changed and with it the character of processes of liturgical renewal and reinvigoration in church institutions. The growth of the internet as a source for information on “good liturgy” also impacts upon worshipping communities, sometimes for good and sometimes for ill, and the uneven access to this knowledge in communities and across the world shapes its reception.Finally, the same impetus for liturgical renewal that captured the Catholic church in the mid-twentieth century is now being witnessed in new places. The field is even more ecumenical than it was decades ago. Scholars and pastors in Evangelical and Pentecostal churches are eager to reap the fruits of the Liturgical Movement, and even the reform program of Vatican II, but in theologically-disparate contexts. Transcending denominational boundaries, Christians in the Global South also seek resources to assist efforts at liturgical renewal. Finally, scholars across disciplines, who may have limited access to resources because of institutional independence or geographic setting, also look for greater access to high-quality scholarship to inform their study of matters liturgical.
Structure
Lex Orandi is organized as a non-profit, supported by a few founding institutions and a larger number of collaborating partners. An editorial board of six to ten people will serve as the executive board of the non-profit; it will also do the day-to-day work of journal publication. One member of the editorial board will be elected by the other members of the board to serve as editor-in-chief for a one- or two-year term. The editors will be supported by a managing editor, who reports to the editor-in-chief. Funds for operating expenses will be raised through donations from institutional partners and through grant applications. As it makes broader decisions about the direction of the journal, the editorial board will be advised by a larger advisory council, composed of members who represent the institutional partners as well as other scholars in the field.