Daily Lectionary

Announcing Changes to the Daily Lectionary
November, 2009

I’m writing to let you know that we are making some changes to the Daily Lectionary resource provided by the Massachusetts Conference. We have not undertaken this project lightly, as we know the Lectionary is a cherished resource both within the Conference and beyond. However, there are several important reasons why we are changing both the source material and the format of the Lectionary.

What is the Lectionary?

A lectionary is a collection of readings from the Scriptures, arranged and intended for proclamation during worship. The practice of assigning particular readings to each Sunday and festival day began in the fourth century, and has continued through the history of the Christian Church.

In 1992, the Consultation on Common Texts (CCT) - an ecumenical consultation of liturgical scholars and denominational representatives from the United States and Canada, including the United Church of Christ – produced the Revised Common Lectionary. Many UCC churches use the Lectionary to guide the formation of their Sunday services, and many of the denomination’s worship and Christian Education resources are based on the Lectionary.

In 2005, the CCT published the Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings, which provides weekday readings that relate to the Sunday Scripture lessons. Thursday through Saturday readings help prepare the reader for the Sunday reading, and Monday through Wednesday readings help the reader reflect on what they heard at church.

What the Massachusetts Conference produces

For as long as anyone on the staff of the Massachusetts Conference can remember, the Conference has been providing a Daily Lectionary resource in the Mailing. While the Sunday readings in that resource came from the Revised Common Lectionary, the daily readings were taken from a 1986 book, A Daily Lectionary by W. Douglas Mills. Those daily readings pre-date the Revised Common Lectionary and so therefore do not necessarily relate to the Sunday readings or mesh with other lectionary-based resources.

The Conference-produced Lectionary has also been quite labor intensive, requiring a staff member to type in all the readings from the book. Staff reductions in recent years have made it difficult for us to dedicate time to this chore.

For those reasons, we are now offering a new version of the Daily Lectionary that comes directly from the Consultation on Common Texts. This will be less time-consuming for us to produce, as we are able to get the readings electronically and simply reformat them for your use. It will also allow churches and individuals to use the Lectionary in conjunction with other resources that are using the same texts, such as:

• The United Church of Christ Calendar of Prayer, which pairs the daily and Sunday lectionary readings with inspiring stories from the lives of UCC congregations and members doing mission and ministry locally and globally. Available at: www.ucc.org/worship/calendar
  
• Several church school curricula, including Best of Whole People of God, Living the Good News and Seasons of the Spirit , which are based on the lectionary. Find more information at: www.macucc.org/education/curriculum.htm
  
• The UCC SAMUEL sermon preparation resource, available at: www.ucc.org/worship/samuel
  
• Worship Ways , a variety of prayers, liturgies, and "how-to" articles for use on Sundays, Festivals, and special UCC calendar days.  Available at: www.ucc.org/worship/worship-ways

These same lectionary readings are also available for download into Microsoft Outlook calendars and for syncing with PDAs at www.ucc.org/lcm/e-calendar.html.

I hope you understand why we have decided to make this change. We are making the transition now, because the Lectionary year changes at the end of November. For this month only, we are including the old version of the Lectionary along with the new one, so that anyone following the old version can finish out the Lectionary year. Beginning with the December issue, the lectionary will only be available in the new format.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Tiffany Vail
Associate for Communication
Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ
vailt@macucc.org , 508-875-5233

UCC Calendar of Prayer

The United Church of Christ Calendar of Prayer pairs the daily and Sunday lectionary readings with inspiring stories from the lives of UCC congregations and members doing mission and ministry locally and globally, and with prayers for that work.

Click on the date to be taken to the full story and related prayers.