Liturgical cycle

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thomasf

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Someone asked me this question today. She had done some research and discovered that the methodist, luthern, anglical, episcopal denominations all had the same readings the past 2 weeks as the catholic church did. As I understand it, the liturgical cycle was set after V II. So she asked why it is that all these denominations have the same readings and I don’t know. Anyone have any answers?
 
My understanding is that some Protestant denominations thought the new lectionary was a good idea so they just adopted it for themselves.
 
thomasf said:
Someone asked me this question today. She had done some research and discovered that the methodist, luthern, anglical, episcopal denominations all had the same readings the past 2 weeks as the catholic church did. As I understand it, the liturgical cycle was set after V II. So she asked why it is that all these denominations have the same readings and I don’t know. Anyone have any answers?
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Many mainline Protestant denominations (the liturgical ones) adopted the Catholic lectionary because they liked it.
 
1ke said:
Many mainline Protestant denominations (the liturgical ones) adopted the Catholic lectionary because they liked it.
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Yep, because they share so many of the historical foundations when they were created with various schisms over various issues long ago. They are still much more alike than not with many traditions.
 
A fair number of Protestant denominations today use the RCL (Revised Common Lectionary) which is based our Catholic Lectionary (Ordo Lectionum Missae). The RCL is quite similar for Advent, Lent and Easter. However for Ordinary Time (or as they put it Time after Epipiahny/Pentecost) the Old Testament readings differ from those of our lectionary. Plus, for these, the RCL provides a choice for a lot of Sundays between two OT readings. One set follows a more-or-less semicontinous pattern and unlike the Roman, are therefore unrelated to the Gospel

This page may be helpful for you.

To compare the schema, click here for the RCL and here for the Roman lectionary
 
A fair number of Protestant denominations today use the RCL (Revised Common Lectionary) which is based our Catholic Lectionary (Ordo Lectionum Missae). The RCL is quite similar for Advent, Lent and Easter. However for Ordinary Time (or as they put it Time after Epipiahny/Pentecost) the Old Testament readings differ from those of our lectionary. Plus, for these, the RCL provides a choice for a lot of Sundays between two OT readings. One set follows a more-or-less semicontinous pattern and unlike the Roman, are therefore unrelated to the Gospel

This page may be helpful for you.

To compare the schema, click here for the RCL and here for the Roman lectionary
 
I think it is wonderful to know that those communities are following our lead in this. In fact in many Anglican/Episcopal churches and even Lutheran ones, you’d be hard pressed on just walking into the middle of the service to say off hand if it was Catholic or not. I pray that the unity extends beyond just the lectionary cycle and externals in our life times. (Although the practical part of me is rather pessimistic!)
 
I know many Methodist ministers use the lectionary, but you must remember it is only suggested for their use and they are in no way required to use it. So if a particular minister wanted to preach on any Bible verse or topic they felt like they would certainly be in their right to do that.

ChadS
 
And just as an FYI, the Jews have a three year cycle of readings as well. They didn’t copy us though and it’s rather sparse on NT readings 😉
 
thomasf said:
Someone asked me this question today. She had done some research and discovered that the methodist, luthern, anglical, episcopal denominations all had the same readings the past 2 weeks as the catholic church did. As I understand it, the liturgical cycle was set after V II. So she asked why it is that all these denominations have the same readings and I don’t know. Anyone have any answers?
Click to expand...
Many of the Protestant Communities worked on and accepted the “Common Lectionary”, which is based on the Roman Catholic Lectionary. Most Sundays the readings are the same there are a few that have different readings. If you look at the readings for those Sundays it is obvious why they have different readings in the Common Lectionary. It was thought that the Scriptures could be a good starting point in Ecumenism, even though we didn’t totally agree in that area.
 
Thanks for your help. She was rather disappointed that the cycle was based on the catholic cycle and not vice versa.
 
And just as an FYI, the Jews have a three year cycle of readings as well. They didn’t copy us though and it’s rather sparse on NT readings 😉
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:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
 
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