Rambling Rector

From the Rambling Rector

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The Rambling Rector often gets asked about the complicated subject of how the bible readings are chosen for each Sunday. The Church of England follows the Revised Common Lectionary, a book which lists readings for every day of the week as well as Sundays. This Lectionary is based on the Roman Catholic Lectionary and is followed by Anglican, Methodist, United Reform, Lutheran, Presbyterian and some Baptist churches around the world. AI estimates that about 300 million people around the world go to a church that follows the same readings as we do in our churches. This means that you can visit any of these churches around the world and hear the same biblical texts as in our churches and we can be assured that we are hearing the same texts in our churches as millions of people around the world. 

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The opening sentence used the word complicated, and yes, it is complicated, mainly because there are several options to choose from each Sunday.  Which ones should be used?

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The readings follow a three year cycle, A, B & C. For each of these years the focus is on a particular Gospel. A- Matthew, B-Mark and C-Luke. John is a different style of gospel and is interspersed throughout all three years. 

In the example here, all the services in our benefice would have the readings from the Principal Service for the day, as no church has more than one service on a Sunday. 2026 is Year A, so that is how we arrive at the top left box above. Communion services tend not to have a psalm, but Matins, Evensong and Morning Meditation services do.

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For the Sundays in what is known as ‘Ordinary Time’, e.g. from Trinity Sunday to Advent, there are two Old Testament readings, labelled Track 1 and 2. Track 1 follows a pattern of working through the Old Testament, also referred to as continuous and Track 2 chooses an Old Testament Reading that is related to the Gospel reading. In this benefice we alternate between the two to try and cover as many of the options as possible over a six year cycle. The Rambling Rector knows that this adds to the complication of knowing which reading is being used, but the aim is to cover as much of the bible as possible over the three year cycle. 

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A copy of the Revised Common Lectionary with the selected readings highlighted is provided to those organising the readers for each church. They are listed on the centre pages of this magazine and on the church website.  https://www.eggardoncolmerschurches.org/readings.  Apologies in advance for when errors are made. You may have noticed that in the centre pages of this magazine, two of the readings are highlighted in bold text. That is because for services that are not the Benefice Eucharist we only use two of the three set readings and the bold is the two that are to be used. This always includes the gospel. A balance is aimed for by alternating these between the Old and New Testaments.

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So that is it for Sunday’s, other than feast days, or days of celebrating some of the heroes of our faith. On occasion these can be transferred from their normal day to a Sunday. This year the Rambling Rector has transferred as many saints days to the Sunday as possible so that we all can (including the Rambling Rector who will be doing the research) learn about those that have gone before us and left a mark on Christianity through the centuries. These vary from the conversion of St Paul on the road to Damascus, to St Mark, St Barnabus, St Simon & St Jude and St Matthias.

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All in all, the church is providing as wide a range of the bible and its major characters as it can and it is doing this in conjunction with churches all over the world. Do keep an eye out for the saints that are being celebrated throughout the year and come along and learn how they shaped Christianity and can help us today.

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Clear as mud!

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Rev Chris

 

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