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Revised Common Lectionary

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 81.5.208.47 (talk) at 05:26, 16 September 2007 (→Denominational practices: The RC Church does not use the RCL but the OLM, and LCMS have now also adopted/adapted the RCL.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Revised Common Lectionary is a lectionary of readings or pericopes from the Bible for use in Christian Worship, making provision for the liturgical year with its pattern of observances of festivals and seasons. It was put together in 1983 as an ecumenical revision of the earlier three year lectionary produced by the Roman Catholic Church in 1969 following the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. The revision was the product of a collaboration between the North American Consultation on Common Texts (CCT) and the International English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC). After a nine-year trial period, it was publicly released in 1994. The CCT membership includes the National Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops as well as many traditional "mainline" American and Canadian Protestant denominations. The CCT thereby represents the majority of American and Canadian Christians and has been widely adopted in Great Britain. It differs little from its predecessor, the 1969 Ordo Lectionum Missae and subsequent Common Lectionary.

As in its predecessors, readings are prescribed for each Sunday: a passage from the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, or the Acts of the Apostles; a passage from one of the Psalms; another from either the Book of Revelation or the Epistles; and finally a passage from one of the four Gospels.

Also like its predecessors, it runs in three-year cycles; the gospel readings in the first year (Year A) are taken from the Gospel of Matthew, those in the second year (or Year B) from the Gospel of Mark, and in the third year (or Year C) come from the Gospel of Luke. Portions of the Gospel of John are read at certain festivals every year.

Year A begins on the first Sunday of Advent in 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, etc.

Year B begins on the first Sunday of Advent in 2005, 2008, 2011, 2014, etc.

Year C begins on the first Sunday of Advent in 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, etc.

It differs from its Latin predecessor, however, in that — as a result of feedback collected from the participating churches during the trial period — a greater emphasis is given to Old Testament passages and to Wisdom literature.


Scripture usage

The major principle behind the lectionary is that on a Sunday members of congregations should be able to hear the voice of each writer week by week, rather than readings being selected according to a theme. Thus, in any given year one of the first three gospel writer will be heard from beginning to end. Likewise the rest of the New Testament is heard, in some cases, virtually in total, in others in large part.

This principle is subject to a number of exceptions. Firstly, different principles apply during the special seasons of the years: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent and Easter. Here appropriate lections relevant to the season are chosen. The rest of the year, called Ordinary Time begins in February (after Candlemas) and runs until the Second Sunday before Lent. It then resumes after Pentecost until the Sunday before Advent which is kept as the Feast of Christ the King.

Secondly, because the cycle is three years long, only three of the Gospel writers are given a year. St John's Gospel, whose form and character is very different from the first three so-called synoptic gospels is treated differently and is inserted into all three years. Thus passages from St John appear in the special seasons of Advent and Lent, on Passion Sunday in all three years, throughout Holy Week, including Good Friday, on Easter Day as the first alternative Gospel, during most of the Easter season, on Pentecost and during the year in which St Mark's gospel is in use. A practical reason for this is that Mark is considerably shorter than either St Matthew or St Luke.

The treatment given to the Old Testament provides a further qualification to the first principle. Because it is so much longer than the New, it is inevitable that a smaller proportion of the material will be included, unless readings are to be very long. Readings are much more selective both in terms of the books included: little appears from the Books of Leviticus and Numbers and almost none from 1 and 2 Chronicles. Moreover, it was decided that churches could choose between two "Tracks" in their use of the Old Testament. "Track 1" adheres to the principle of giving the Biblical writer his own voice, thus following week by week from a portion of a book, or, in the case of some books, the whole. "Track 2", on the other hand, designated the "Related Track", is intended to relate in some way to the Gospel for the day. Provison is made for the use of a responsorial psalm each Sunday.

Lastly, there has been a certain amount of editing so that some verses of most books are omitted. Sometimes the omission is simply an introduction to a book; sometimes more substantial material has been excluded, but the overall intention, that of allowing, say, the substance of a biblical writer's thoughts to be read and heard in church, has arguably been achieved at least more substantially than before. There have been arguments over individual editorial judgements and the Church of England, in its use of the RCL, has re-inserted verses, in brackets, which were felt by its Liturgical Commission to be more properly included.

Such is the length of the Scriptural canon that no Sunday lectionary can cover the whole of Scripture without the necessity of very long readings on a Sunday or a longer cycle of years. Sometimes there has to be a choice between telling a long story or omitting it entirely. However, the daily lectionary, devised by the Roman Catholic and adopted by the Church of England (among others), provides more material and the Church of England has augmented the RCL by the provision of readings for second and third services. Thus the RCL lectionary is used for the "Principal Service", which often takes the form of a Eucharist, while allowing for additional material at other services which may be Morning and Evening Prayer (though provision is made for either being a Eucharist). Minimal changes to the "Principal Service" have been made in order to preserve its use as an ecumenical lectionary; the most significant of these is in Year B where in Epiphany for three Sundays readings from Revelation replace readings from 1 Corinthians.

Denominational practices

The Revised Common Lectionary is used in its original or an adapted form by a number of churches around the world. The Ordo Lectionum Missae, on which it is based, is used in the Roman Catholic Church in local translations as the standard lectionary. A number of Protestant churches have also adopted (and sometimes adapted) the RCL. In the United States of America this includes the Disciples of Christ, the Christian Fellowship of the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, the Presbyterian Church USA, the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church. In the United Kingdom this includes the Church of England, the Methodist Church, the United Reformed Church, the Church in Wales, the Scottish Episcopal Church, and the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian). These denominations may loosely use it but even in cases where it is used on a regular basis, these congregations usually consider its use optional.

See also

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