Professor Peter McGrail
PROFESSOR
School of Humanities
0151 291 3515
mcgraip@hope.ac.uk
I am a Lancashire man born and bred – originally from the ex-mining village of Standish. From an early age I developed a passion for music and history and a fascination for the religious rituals that punctuated the life of our community – from village walking days to the popular religious devotions of the Roman Catholic parish in which I grew up. I have carried these intertwined interests in music, history and ritual into my academic life.
So, I studied music as an undergraduate at the University of Liverpool, and then I went to the Venerable English College in Rome where I studied to be a Catholic priest. After ordination, I stayed in Rome to complete a Licentiate at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Sant’ Anselmo. I then spent several years working as a curate, hospital chaplain and then as a parish priest in the Archdiocese of Liverpool. I combined my musical and liturgical interest by writing music for the Catholic liturgy. I was then appointed Director of Pastoral Formation for the Archdiocese, beginning at the same time part time doctoral studies at the University of Birmingham: this is where my historical and ritual interests came together – I wanted to know quite what was going on in the annual celebration of the First Communion of young children and how the current elaborate (and often contested) practice evolved. I completed my PhD in 2003 and soon afterwards became a member of academic staff at Liverpool Hope.
Teaching Specialisms
The religious history of Liverpool
The Roman Catholic Church – theology and history
Western liturgy and worship – both Catholic and Protestant
Introduction to the Study of African Traditional Religions
School/Faculty Roles:
I am Professor of Liturgical Theology at Liverpool Hope, and I continue to be fascinated by what people think and understand about worship – and indeed the Church - from the ground up. I like to use data gathered from interviews in my research and fieldwork observations in my research, and I am especially interested in what happens when the experience and opinions on the ground clash with the expectations and understandings from above. I have since supervised a large number of PHD students whose projects incorporated my research approaches to investigate the lives of their religious communities that encompassed a broad range of Christian denominations and cultures.
I chair the School of Humanities Academic Committee, and I sit on the University Academic Committee.
Recent Projects
I am closely involved in the liturgical life of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. I chair the liturgical formation Committee of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, and most recently have co-led a national project to create a Directory for the provision of prayer and liturgy in Catholic Schools across the country:
To Love you more Dearly: The Prayer and Liturgy Directory for Catholic Schools, Academies and College in England & Wales (Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales)
I have also recently worked with two Roman Catholic dioceses to analyse the responses made by thousands of ordinary parishioners to their Synod consultations. I am also working with an interdisciplinary team to develop the use of complex geographical mapping methods (CGI) in pastoral planning.
I serve as a Director of a large Catholic multi-academy trust in South Manchester.
Recent Publications
‘Liminality and Worship: Chant, Art and Angels,’ In Michael O’Connor & Monique Ingalls (eds), Oxford Handbook of Music and Christian Theology (forthcoming)
With Anthony Towey, ‘The centre cannot hold? Reconciling Catholic responses to religious education in England - empirical and analytical reflections,’ in International Studies in Catholic Education, 2020
With Anthony Towey, ‘Partners in Progress? An Impact Study of the 2016 Religious Education Reforms in England’, in International Journal of Christianity and Education (2019)
‘Laudato Si’ – The Liturgical Imperative of the Liturgy,’ in Integral Ecology for a More Sustainable World: Dialogues with Laudato Si’, eds. Matthew Eaton, Dennis Patrick O’Hara, Michael Ross (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2019).
Research Interests: My primary research interest is the Roman Catholic Church - and especially its liturgy. One of my key concerns is to look beyond formal liturgical texts and to ask what sense participants make of the celebrations in which they participate. I explored this area in detail in my ground-breaking study of the celebration of first Holy Communion in Liverpool (First Communion: Ritual, Church and Popular Religious Identity. Ashgate, 2007). Ultimately, I am interested in developing ways to understand and articulate the gap that so often emerges between formal liturgy and life, but also creatively to explore ways of bridging that gap. My approach, therefore, is strongly pastoral in nature, as is reflected in my work as a member of the liturgical committees of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales. I have recently co-edited The SCM Study Guide to Catholic Liturgy (London: SCM, 2018) which drew on the expertise of members of those Committees.
The question of a 'gap' raises further questions about the relationship between liturgy and ecclesiology. This I explored through a sustained analysis of the Roman rites for adult initiation i in my second monograph (The Rite of Christian Initiation: Adult Rituals and Roman Catholic Ecclesiology. Ashgate, 2014). This study deepened my interest in the the liturgical Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium of Vatican II and I am currently engaged in researching the relationship between the Council's liturgical intentions and the rites as subsequently revised.More broadly, I am interested in the relationship between the Roman Catholic Community and broader society. This pans out in two directions. The first is with regard to the impact - especially ecumenically - of Catholic Social teaching; in 2015 I co-authored with Nicholas Sagovsky a collection of essays entitled 'Together For the Common Good: Towards a National Conversation' (SCM). The second direction is the broader field of Catholic Religious education - especially with regard to current GCSE and A-Level Curriculum reform. I sit as a member of the multiagency CREDO (Catholic Religious Education Opportunities) convened by the Catholic Education Service of the Bishops Conference and the National Board of religious Inspectors and Advisors. In 2008-19 I conducted both qualitative and quantitative research into the impact on the classroom experience of both teachers and students as they passed through the first iteration of the new awards. Initial findings are to be published in July 2019.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese has commissioned me to carry out background research in preparation for its diocesan synod in 2020, and has funded a research assistant to work alongside me. As with the research into religious education, this has both quantitative and qualitative dimensions.
I bring my interest in the interchange between religious belief and life as co-investigator in a research project entitled, 'Understanding the extent of and limitations to conscientious objection by health care practitioners to abortion'. This project has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and is led by Professor Valerie Fleming of Liverpool John Moores University.
I also take a keen interest in contemporary liturgical music: I am a member of the St. Thomas More Group of liturgical composers, with work published through Oregon Catholic Press. My musical interests extend beyond the liturgical assembly, and I have published on the use of the Bible in opera. I maintain an historical interest in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Anglican worship.
Academic Qualifications :2003 PhD (University of Birmingham); 1987 Licentiate in Sacred Liturgy (Pontifical Liturgical Institute of San Anslemo, Rome); 1980 BA (Hons) in Music (Liverpool University)
Professional Associations: North American Academy of Liturgy (Christian Initiation Seminar); Society for Liturgical Study - Committee member without portfolio since 2010; British Sociological Association, Sociology of Religion Study Group; Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain.