A plethora of lectionaries

[alban]

This is perhaps going to be a bit of a dunce question, but pmcleanj's recent post on Sunday School reminded me of my recent confusion regarding the lectionary. It has only been rather recently that i've been following the lectionary readings for my own private devotions and for that i'm using (i guess) the revised common lectionary. How does it differ from the common lectionary and the BCP lectionary. When did they both come about? Who uses the assorted lectionaries?

Sorry for all the questions!

[pmcleanj]

Oh, Lectionaries! One of my favourite obsessions!

The 1662 lectionary comes from the compilers of the 1662 prayer book. Back in 1976 I briefly glanced through an analysis of the motivations and considerations of compiling the 1662 prayer book that I found in the stacks of the UBC main library; but I was researching something else and moved on instead of sitting down on the floor and reading it then and there. Alas! it might have explained why the compilers picked the readings they did, in the order they did, in the number they did.

A peculiarity of the 1662 lectionary is that every Sunday was assigned an Epistle and a Gospel -- we almost never read the Old Testament at a Communion service. The lectionary didn't include the Psalm: psalms were read according to a different cycle. And of course, Morning and Evening prayer had their own lectionary -- and were actually celebrated as regular services. That lectionary *did* include the Old Testament, but didn't include the Gospel. The readings are actually printed in the BCP, not just a reference to them, so they were always read in the same version -- the Bishop's Bible.

The Common Lectionary was compiled by an ecumenical committee of scholars during roughly the time of Vatican II. It was focussed on the need to provide a common lectionary for Roman Catholic congregations around the world -- there really wasn't an ecumenical intent to it. None the less, an adaptation of the Common Lectionary was adopted and printed in both the American new BCP of 1979, and Canada's BAS. The lectionary in these books was simply referenced for each date, rather than printed, so different versions were used. At one point the recommended Bible version for lectionary reading in Canada was the New English Bible (which I love) but most of the time we got the Revised Standard Version. I don't know anything about the English ASB, so you'll have to go read the introduction to the lectionary in that and let me know! :)

The Common Lectionary differed from the 1662 lectionary in having three lessons and a Psalm each day, and in having a three-year cycle. Thus it covered a greater proportion of Scripture than the 1662 lectionary did (it still does not cover the entire Bible, despite which it annoyingly does cover some passages twice). The readings are joined thematically to the Gospel readings, which are semi-sequential: Matthew is read in year A, Mark in year B, and Luke in year C; John is read on Feast-days in all three years. Year A starts on Advent Sunday in each year that is divisible by 3 (2004 was divisible by 3, so we are in year A now).

The Consultation on Common Texts, comprising many of the scholars who prepared the Common Lectionary, were surprised by the ecumenical adoption of their work. The Revised Common Lectionary was their modification of the Common Lectionary, to address the needs of protestant users. It was published in a test form -- sort of a beta version -- the early 1980's and finalized in 1992.

The Revised Common Lectionary adds to the Common Lectionary an alternative Old Testament reading for any day that had a deuterocanonical reading; and an alternate pattern of Old Testament readings for Epiphany/Pentecost, that tell the old Testament story in sequence rather than taking thematic selections determined by the Gospel reading. There is still considerable overlap between the CL and the RCL.

The Common Lectionary is used by the Roman Catholic Church, and an adapted form is used by ECUSA. ECUSA got the option of using the Revised Common Lectionary instead just this year. The ACofC adopted the RCL as an option as soon as it became available, and as a norm as soon as it was published.

The RCL is also used by the ELCA (thematic OT readings only) and the ELCIC (semi-continuous OT readings only) and by the United Methodists, the UCC (both American and Canadian), some Presbyterians, and the American Baptists.

More than you wanted to know? Oh well. I await with interest your report on what the ASB and Common Worship do lectionary-wise.

[SeenAndUnseen]

Oh, Lectionaries! One of my favourite obsessions!



:D