Christian Classics Study Group: Lectionaries in our Church – 5 April

The Anglican Church follows the practice of most denominations in choosing a series of readings to be read on Sunday services in all of their churches. That series of readings is called a lectionary. In the Church of England there are two possible lectionaries for use at Sunday services of Holy Communion. 

The first is called the Traditional Western Eucharistic Lectionary, found in the Book of Common Prayer, but whose origins are in the 5th century. These readings have been used consistently in Western Churches, with minor variations at the Reformation, until the late 1980s. It is a one-year cycle of Epistle and Gospel readings, to which have been recently added Old Testament lessons. The second is called the Revised Common Lectionary. In the 1970s and 80s, following an initiative of the Roman Catholic Church after Vatican II in 1969, the Anglican Church began to experiment and finally agree upon a new lectionary, which is a three-year cycle of readings largely based upon the new Roman Catholic lectionary.

Holy Trinity Utrecht has used both lectionaries but is currently using the one-year Traditional Western Eucharistic Lectionary. Some on the Utrecht Leadership Team have questioned this and wonder if we should change back to the new three-year Revised Common lectionary.

Christian Classics Study Group will have an evening dedicated to understanding the advantages and disadvantages of each of these two optional lectionaries in the Church of England.

Members of the Utrecht Leadership Team are hoping to attend to be more familiar and so be better able to make a decision about which lectionary we should use here at Holy Trinity in future. But this evening is open to the whole congregation, to all who are interested in learning about why we use the particular readings we do each Sunday.

The evening was led by our Chaplain David Phillips.

When: Friday 5 April AD 2019

Where: The Parsonage, van Hogendorpstraat 26.

What: Supper begins at 6:30pm, the talk and discussion begins at 8:00pm

Here is the Power Point presentation notes from the evening:

Lectionaries in our Church: The Word of God Spoken and Preached