Definitely time for a break. Phone call this morning as i was clearing the desk from someone who is reading a Biblical lesson in church on Sunday. Sorry to be dim, she said, but I can't find it! Can I help? Now, if you're not in professional ministry, what follows probably won't make any sense (it might not make sense anyway) but here goes.
We have something called a lectionary, which is a pattern of readings that runs for three years, so to work out what you are to read on Sunday you need to know which year it is (this is Year A). Then you need to know which Sunday of the year it is (this Sunday is Trinity 2). The lectionary the Church of England decided to use when it switched over eight years ago is a good one, and it' ecumencial, used by a number of Christian denominations. But as wsell as being ecumenical, the Church of England wanted to put its own stamp on it, so made some changes to the pattern and to the names of some of the Sundays. Nothing wrong with that. But then it allowed everyone to go out and buy copies of the unamended version of the lectionary without issuing a warning, or commissioning a proper publishing of what they had now agreed. Some churches spent a lot of money at this point (the lectern edition cost about seventy five quid!). Then another edition was published which was the Anglican version, and other churches bought those. So there were now tow slightly different versions in use. And THEN the second version, which fitted what the Church of England had decided to do, went out of the print, but you can still get the earlier version, which doesn't entirely follow what we do, but is close enough for you not to notice this until some snag comes up, like this morning. You following all this?
Anyway, the upshot of all this is that busy clergy like me get phone calls from nice but confused church ladies like this morning, and we have to go and help them find what they need and explain - again- the rather tedious story above and wonder - again- how an organisation like the Church of England could manage to get itself in this mess an provide its employees and members with resources that are not fit for purpose.
So, if you are reading this Sunday, Trinity 2, you'll find the readings under Epiphany 7 Year A. (Trust me on this one).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Thanks for that - in the Church in Wales, we often use C of E stuff and get right royally stuffed when this happens, one collect, another OT and a completely different Gospel (I couldn't work out where they got the psalm from, (except the bible of course), all from one lectionary due to the 'Sundays following Trinity or Pentecost or is it Proper something or other' confusion
Post a Comment