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It is with sadness that we record the passing of another keen member of the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Margaret Howe. We extend our warmest sympathies to her family and friends.
Conference Report
Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church
8-11 January 1999
The recent conference on Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church, convened at the University of Sydney by the Centre for Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic University, offered a very interesting range of papers by speakers from a wide variety of theological backgrounds. We were honoured to have as invited speakers Rt. Rev. Rowan Williams (UK), Rev. Brian Daley (USA), Prof. Pier Franco Beatrice (Italy), Rev. Prof. John McGuckin (UK/USA) and Prof. Elena Giannarelli (Italy) who are eminent scholars in the field of patristics; and Dr. Joan Barclay-Lloyd (Australia), who specializes in Early Christian and Mediaeval art history. These speakers offered papers at the plenary sessions, and fifty-four papers were offered in parallel sessions, on the practice of prayer, liturgical practices, magical practices, ascetical practices and the development of Christian art in the early Egyptian, Syrian, Greek and Western churches. These topics were explored from the points of view of the laity, the ascetic, the mystic, the cleric and the monastic (categories which allow a great deal of overlap). There was a strong emphasis on pagan and Platonic influences on the Early Church. At the valedictory session the conference was deemed to have been a success both academically and ecumenically, and we look forward to the forthcoming publication of the proceedings. The first volume of papers given at the last conference on Prayer and Spirituality in the Early Church in 1996, was launched at this conference, and constitutes a valuable teaching tool for all those interested in the Byzantine and Western traditions of prayer and spirituality. The next conference will be held in 2002 at the new campus of Australian Catholic University in Melbourne.
Bronwen Neil, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane