Revised Common Lectionary

CallofChrist

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I just wanted to say that I really enjoy the Revised Common Lectionary.

It is great to be able to pre-read the scriptures that will be read at service, so you can be prepared to ponder them while they are being exposited or read in church.

The daily readings are good, too and can be very helpful in life.

Does anyone else really dig the Lectionary?

Revised Common Lectionary
 

PloverWing

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I don't have a strong opinion on the Revised Common Lectionary as compared to other possible lectionaries. But I do like several things about the RCL:

1) Like you, I like being able to read and think about the Scripture readings in advance.

2) I like the discipline of the church having to follow a lectionary. The church I grew up in didn't use a lectionary; the preacher preached on whatever Bible passage he felt moved to preach on that week. The principle sounds good, being led by God from week to week, but God seemed to lead him to the same handful of passages over and over again. And I can see it, who is going to choose to preach on II Kings or Zephaniah when John 3:16 and Romans 6:23 are just sitting there? :) The lectionary pulls us into the parts of the Bible that aren't our half-dozen favorite verses.

3) I like it that so many denominations were able to agree on a single common lectionary. If I'm travelling and visiting another church, I know what they'll be reading on Sunday, even if they're Presbyterian or Methodist or Catholic. There's something nice about so many Christians moving through the Bible together.
 
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CallofChrist

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Yeah, it is comforting to know that millions of others are reading the same scriptures as you are!


The church I grew up in didn't use a lectionary; the preacher preached on whatever Bible passage he felt moved to preach on that week.

I hear ya there! Some churches have no concept of sacred time and therefore do not really celebrate much of the Christian Year except Easter and Christmas. The discipline of the lectionary adds to the solid foundation of the Church and how it relates to time.
 
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Arcangl86

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that's a good question. I am unaware of any other lectionaries in use.
Maybe someone knows if there are.
There are a few. There is the Narrative Lectionary which is fairly new and is on a four year cycle. The idea is to tell long portions of the biblical narrative over time instead of jumping around. While it was produced by a Lutheran seminary, it is in growing amount of use by other mainline denominations as well. The Catholics have their own three year lectionary for Sunday Masses. The historic Anglican lectionary was a one year lectionary, though I don't if any province still uses it. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod does still have an option for a one year lectionary as well. The 1979 Episcopal Book of Common Prayer actually had a different three year lectionary when it was first print, though it was completely phased out in favor of the RCL in 2010. And the Eastern churches still use one year lectionaries.

This is only including Sunday lectionaries. Both the Episcopal Church and the Catholic Church have daily mass lectionaries. And several traditions have a two year long Daily Office Lectionary which is separate from the Sunday lectionary. The Episcopal Church uses the RCL on Sunday and our own seperate Daily Office Lectionary.
 
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Philip_B

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The Anglican Church of Australia use a modified form of the Revised Common Lectionary from the 1970's and from the late 80's used a further revised form of it. My view is that the Revised Common Lectioary was better. It was good to be able to talk to other Christians from other traditions and be largely on the same page, so to speak.
 
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MarkRohfrietsch

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In the LCMS/LCC we use a "lightly" revised Common Lectionary, which has many merits; however our Congregations are still allowed to use the Historic 1 year Lectionary. Certain observances and practices were lost with the adoption of the 3 year system. While Pastor and I would like to return to it's use, the mere suggestion nearly resulted with stakes being erected, and fire-wood being gathered.
This link shows the Sundays and festivals, but there is a Daily Lectionairy for the Daily office as well. to quote the website "The One-Year Lectionary is unique in that there are a number of older resources that support it, including hymnody, sermons by Luther and others, etc.": LCMS Document Library
 
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Shane R

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Yes. I would hazard a guess that most service books since the late 1970s have included some form of lectionary and the daily cycle is often proprietary. In addition, Anglican prayer books have sometimes been printed with more than one lectionary - even at times in the same printing. The Cambridge standard text 1662 I have has both a late 19th century lectionary and a revision from 1922. The 1928 American book began with one lectionary but it was revised in the 1940s. This is the most common lectionary in Continuing Anglican Churches.
 
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