Abstract:
The main aim of this article is a description of both ancient and nascent ritual-liturgical
developments and to ask the question whether these descriptions can assist in
identifying possible worship trends in years to come. In order to focus the inquiry
the article looks at the presence of crosses within the context of worship settings,
but mainly as these rituals are performed outside of the traditional spaces of Sunday
morning worship and church buildings. The two settings which form the focus of this
article are firstly the early Medieval period in the history of liturgy and secondly the
current South African ritual landscape. These descriptions are valuable for liturgical
studies in South Africa as an attempt at answering the basic practical theological
question, namely “what is going on?” Only after an attempt at answering this first
question can the second question be posed, namely “why is this going on?” The article
concludes with some preliminary observations with regards to the latter question
which could serve as a preliminary attempt at identifying future worship trends.
