The Society of Saint Gregory is the national society for liturgy and music in the Roman Catholic Church in the British Isles.

Founded in 1929, the Society of St Gregory has played and important role in the liturgical reform and continues to do so today by promoting the study and understanding of the liturgy and encouraging and resourcing good pastoral practice in the public worship of the Catholic Church.

The Society’s interests and activities encompass music and composition, the ministry of readers, presiding at liturgy, liturgy in schools and with children and young people, and Christian art and architecture.

Welcome

Fr Adrian Porter sj, SSG Chair, writes: “Welcome to the Society of St Gregory.  We are an association of people interested in good liturgy – the public worship of the Catholic Church.  Our members include singers and musicians, readers and altar servers, bishops, priests and deacons, and ordinary lay folk who have an interest in liturgy from an academic or from a pastoral perspective.

We publish a journal three times a year, hold an annual residential Summer School, run online and in-person training courses for those involved in liturgy in their parishes, and organize  composers’ groups for those involved in writing music for the liturgy.

Please take a look at this website.  Ask for a free copy of our journal, Music & Liturgy.  And, if its right for you, think about joining us.  You would be most welcome!”

Summer School 2024

Plans are well advanced for our Summer School at Liverpool Hope University from Wednesday 31 July to Saturday 3 August 2024.  Keynote speakers include Martin Foster on the revised lectionary, Fleur Dorrell on seeing scripture through sound and colour, David McLoughlin on the worshipping community, and Sue Price on inclusion in liturgy.  Christopher Walker joins us as director of music with Kathryn Turner as director of liturgy.

Music & Liturgy

The latest edition of Music & Liturgy, the journal of the Society of St Gregory, has dropped onto door mats!  John Ainslie reflects on the liminal quality of liturgy.  Paul Inwood navigates the challenges of using recorded music in church.  Allen Morris explores the nature and use of blessings.  This issue also includes Avril Baigent‘s Crichton Lecture and Claire Ozanne and David McLoughlin‘s talks from Summer School 2023 on key documents of Vatican II sixty years on.

Music & Liturgy is published three times a year and is sent to members of the Society of St Gregory.

News, views and reviews from the liturgical world

Lay preaching

Lay preaching

A symposium of preachers and theologians hosted by the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St Louis USA in March 2024, has made a formal submission to the Synod seeking a change in canon law to allow...

read more
Composers Group

Composers Group

The Composers' Group next meets online on Saturday 20th April at 2pm.  All involved in writing music or texts for the liturgy, from beginners to advanced, are welcome.  The session lasts 2 hours. ...

read more
Believing not belonging

Believing not belonging

This research paper from the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Cambridge was commissioned by the Diocese of Brentwood and explores the reasons Catholics have become alienated from the...

read more
Gestis verbisque

Gestis verbisque

This Note from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (3 February 2024) comes in response to several situations where the words and gestures used in celebrating the sacraments have been...

read more
Responding to the Psalms

Responding to the Psalms

A project of the Spirituality Committee of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales The Responsorial Psalm is an integral part of the Liturgy of the Word. You could reflect on a verse for one or...

read more