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Steps to begin using the Revised Common Lectionary in your congregation:
- Ask your Bishop for authority to use the Revised Common Lectionary as an alternative to the BCP lectionary.
- Buy a copy of the Revised Common Lectionary: Abingdon Press, available at any Cokesbury Book store or catalog; it is a good introduction, but not as a resource for the tables.
- You may want to buy a copy of the Revised Common Lectionary from
St. Marks Church, Good Shepherd Episcopal Church,
8021 West 21st Street, Wichita, Kansas, 67205-1743. This book contains the complete texts of all the appointed lecterns.
- Computer resources for the RCL are being developed and improved.
- A lectionary commentary is helpful. Two suggestions to get you started:
Text for Preaching: A Lectionary commentary Based on the NRSV (one volume for each year), Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, KY.
Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary (4 volumes for each year), Abingdon Press, Nashville, TN.
- For the serious study of the lectionary, read Scripture and Memory: The Ecumenical Hermeneutic of the Three-Year Lectionaries, Fritz West, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN.
- Order copies of Introducing the Revised Common Lectionary to the Episcopal Church written by Joseph Russell and published by Forward Movement.
- Be sure to order the Episcopal Church Lesson Calendar published annually by Morehouse publishing. For the past three years the calendar has included information about the Revised Common Lectionary. Joseph Russell comments on differences between the RCL and BCP lectionaries making it easier to understand the reasons for the differences.
- Publicize the use of the lectionary to the congregation. Unlike some liturgical change, the use of the RCL may go unnoticed by many persons.
- Form a Bible sturdy group to explore each week’s lecterns with the preacher and teachers, lectors and other Sunday worship leaders present. This will help to bring the texts and the worship alive for the participants.
- As noted on the previous page, RCL offers the option of semi-continuous readings from the Old Testament during the Sundays after Pentecost. These Old Testament sequential readings lead the congregation week by week through the Old Testament over the three years of the lectionary. In addition to the semi-continuous track of readings, RCL also provides for Gospel related Old Testament lessons for congregations wanting to follow the gospel related Old Testament all year long. A decision needs to be made about those two options. Congregations should not switch back and forth between the two options. Make as choice and stay with it for the whole post-Pentecost period.
- Be careful in working with the Psalter. The verses of the Prayer Book Psalter are often different from the biblical Psalter. Check the verses carefully. St. Mark’s is making the necessary verse changes in their latest edition of the complete lectionary texts mentioned above.
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