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Introduction
Over the past twenty years or more, some Christian liturgical theologians have raised important questions about the nature of Christian prayer, and especially practices of Christian worship, in a post-Holocaust, post-Auschwitz age. David Power posed these questions most directly in a series of response pieces published in 1983 and 1985. He asked, "Can we in truth celebrate eucharist after the Nazi holocaust and in face of imminent nuclear holocaust, and in a world half-populated by refugees, in the same way as we did before the occurrence of such horrors?"1 Although some understood him to be asking if Christians could celebrate the eucharist at all, Power was clear that his concern was with worship "in the same way as before", "without qualification."2 Susan White posed similar questions in her 1994 book Christian Worship and Technological Change: "Can we confess and intercede before a God who seems not to have heard the cries of the Jews in the death camps?" "Can we...pray in the same way to the God of classical theism, the God of power, wisdom, might and mercy, in a postAuschwitz community of faith?"3
The answer to these questions is that while many of our churches continue to worship "in the same ways," they should not continue to do so. The Nazi holocaust, the threat of nuclear destruction, and the events of September 11, 2001, all challenge the nature and character of Christian worship; they call us away from the "eulogistic evasion of suffering" and into lamentation for the woundedness and destruction of God's people throughout the world. The events of September 11 and the war in Iraq brought a shortlived soberness to worship in some Christian communities. But our memories are also short-lived, especially when they are memories of times and places far from our own homes and communities. Christian attention to the Nazi holocaust, with the exceptions of interest in Elie Wiesel's work or in the visit of John Paul II to Auschwitz or the bizarre literature denying the holocaust, remains largely in the hands of theologians and ethicists. Their work, combined with the work of a small group of Jewish and Christian liturgists has had a kind of "trickle down" effect on Christian worship. Yet such concerns remain largely unacknowledged and...