ROOTS and the lectionary

What is a lectionary and how does ROOTS make use of the Revised Common Lectionary?

The Revised Common Lectionary

The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) provides a three-year cycle of Sunday readings based on the three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. Each Gospel is allocated to a year: Matthew is represented in Year A, Mark in Year B and Luke in Year C. Through the course of each year, much of the text of the relevant Gospel is read at Sunday worship. John’s Gospel is used to supplement this.

Each week the lectionary provides:

two readings from the Old Testament – a reading from the Old Testament and a psalm

and

two readings from the New Testament – a reading from one of the Gospels and a reading from one of the letters or the Book of Acts.

How does ROOTS follow the lectionary?

From the four weekly readings, ROOTS usually focuses on one passage in particular, exploring a common thread across the two magazines, Adult & All Age and Children & Young People  

One further reading from the lectionary, often the New Testament reading, forms the focus of a second set of adult sermon notes (see the Adult & All Age sampler ).

Read more about how the ROOTS resources are structured around the lectionary

Other lectionaries

The Church of England’s Common Worship Lectionary is based on the RCL but some festivals or particular Sundays have a different set of readings. At these times, ROOTS publishes alternative weekly resources on the website. We also indicate times when the readings in the Roman Catholic Lectionary differ from the RCL and give references to relevant materials on the website.

Lectionary focus and themes for 2011

To help you plan ahead, we publish a list of the lectionary readings and themes for the year.

 

 

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