Working Groups

The Society brings together small groups of theologians to collaborate on specific issues over an extended period of time.

The St. Nicholas Group for Study of Theological Issues in the Traditional Liturgy

The Society established a small group of theologians and scholars to study issues in related to the Sacred Liturgy. The group met for the first time on St. Nicholas' Day in December 2007 to consider a paper on sacramental causality. The group meets six times each year. Its work continues through the efforts of the Society's St. Nicholas Appeal.

The 2005 Synod of Bishops and the Year of The Eucharist in 2005

In April 2004, in conjunction with the Holy Father's decision to make the Holy Eucharist the subject of the 2005 Synod of Bishops, the Society's trustees decided to devote resources to developing a research project on the Eucharist. The Society's officers prepared a proposal, which can be downloaded here.

The Question of Catholics Teaching in Institutions of Higher Education in Great Britain

In February 2000 a number of university teachers came together at Heythrop College, University of London, to consider problems related to the integration of faith and scholarship in the context of higher education. Under the title Faith in the Academy, discussion opened with a paper by Professor Nicholas Lash, emeritus, University of Cambridge. A second meeting a year later was attended by the Dean of the Faculty of Theology and several members of staff of the Institut Catholique de Paris. These discussions revealed the need for closer consideration of the teaching office of the Bishop in relation to higher education, as well as to the need for further dialogue between Bishops and theologians.

An official working group was constituted in November 2001 under the chairmanship of Bishop Malcolm McMahon OP to explore these issues within the context of the development and present state of Bishops, canon law, and theological and philosophical issues.

The working group has issued a document entitled The Vocation and Formation of Theologians and the Teaching Office of the Bishop in the British Context, which was received by the Committee for Theology of the Roman Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales. It was later sent on to the Bishops' Conference and to the Catholic Theological Association (CTA) of Great Britain and discussed at the CTA's annual conference in August 2003. The document can be downloaded here.