(By the Revd. Matthew Perreault. Fr. Perreault is a member of the National Council of the PBSC. He hails from Calgary, Alberta, and in 2021 he moved with his wife Lindsay to Central Florida to take up a position as the rector of St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church in the town of Eustis. This article describes how he and a group of fellow clergy successfully persuaded the diocesan bishop to authorize the 1962 Canadian eucharistic lectionary, along with the set of Old Testament lections compiled by the PBSC, for trial use in their parishes.)
What is the purpose of the eucharistic lectionary? In the original Prayer Book tradition, Thomas Cranmer makes clear that his goal, with the modest revision of the traditional eucharistic lectionary, is the edification of the people. In the 1970s and beyond, however, much of Anglicanism abandoned the traditional one-year lectionary in favour of a new three-year Revised Common Lectionary which had been developed by Rome.
The three-year model sought to expose the faithful, over the course of the three-year cycle, to as much of Scripture as possible. It was to be a tool to make the faithful as familiar as possible with Scripture in an era where it was becoming clear that the people were less and less familiar with the whole of the Bible. A laudable goal, indeed; however, a surpassingly difficult task.
In short, the goal of the lectionary had gone from edification to exposure. In the 40 or so years since its introduction to North American Anglicanism, it has become normative, and even in Canada where the Prayer Book remains the standard of faith, many dioceses have dubiously licit instructions that the BCP’s lectionary is not to be used and instead all parishes must use the RCL. In the United States, while elements of the 1928 Prayer Book have been re-authorized for use, the lectionary was explicitly exempted from that authorization.
The results of this transition have been mixed at best. In my own parish, I was struck by the comment of a parishioner who had been attending the parish for 40 years, and who off-handedly commented one day that they had no idea that Sirach was a book of the Bible. This was not a theological statement about the Canon of Scripture, but rather a reflection of the fact that the goal of the three-year lectionary, of exposing the faithful to Scripture so that they would become more familiar with the Word of God, had failed this particular parishioner.
This coincided with the work of the Prayer Book Society in developing an Old Testament supplement to the Prayer Book’s lectionary, a project with which I had a limited role in being a reviewer of the drafts, with my move to a new parish having left me unable to take a fuller role in a project which I whole-heartedly endorsed. Having moved from Canada to the United States, I never imagined that my familiarity with the project would lead to its use in my own parish!
In early 2024, a group of clergy in a study circle began discussing our serious difficulties, primarily from a pastoral perspective, with the three-year lectionary. Hearkening back to the Greeks’ bidding to Philip, our parishioners proclaimed “Sir, we wish to see Jesus!”
We ultimately identified a number of key issues that we felt, in our own parochial contexts, had led to our pastoral need. First and foremost was a lack of thematic clarity caused by discontinuity between collects and readings. In the summer of year B or C, it was entirely possible to have a complete disconnect between the Collect, Old Testament, New Testament, and Gospel lessons. This disconnect was a cause of confusion for those new to the Anglican tradition, where there seemed to be no rhyme nor reason to the prayer said at the beginning of the Mass or the readings that were eventually read, and seemingly ignored by the preacher.
This was ultimately the second issue. While exposure seemed good in principle, it had practical deficiencies. Simply reading the lesson did not seem to be causing it to sink in. With such unconnected and disparate readings, it was often difficult for the preacher to draw connections between the readings, meaning that often enough one or two would be entirely ignored. As the preacher ignored them, so too did the faithful.
Finally, while the goal was exposure, the reality is that 156 Sundays over three years is not nearly enough time to expose the faithful to Scripture in a meaningful way. Even in the BCP Office lectionary, which was designed for exposure to Scripture, the two-year cycle has 700 days and four lessons per day to accomplish that, a much more manageable task! With only three years of Sundays, the reality is that significant portions of Scripture are still missed, with, for example, the most complete use of any book of the New Testament being the Epistle to the Ephesians at three-quarters usage. With many of the faithful believing that they were receiving the fullness of the story of Scripture from the lectionary, their own impetus to read Scripture was actually lessened!
Pastorally, our group sought to address those issues. Funda-mentally, we argued that a one-year lectionary focused on the person of Jesus Christ, with the reader thus being captivated by the person of Christ, is the best and only true way for a sustained discipleship that will encourage devotional reading and study of Scripture.
Using resolutions of the American General Convention which encouraged bishops to permit liturgical experimentation in their dioceses for the sake of enriching the liturgical life of the Church and people, the group asked the Bishop to authorize a three-year trial of a one-year lectionary. With some feedback, the Bishop enthusiastically endorsed the proposal, and after setting terms, authorized it for use, but not before encouraging the inclusion of two additional parishes.
While the proposal submitted to the bishop considered five different possible one-year lectionaries, our group ultimately proposed the Prayer Book Society’s Canadian Lectionary with Old Testament Supplement as our preference. Its design allows for the least disruption to parishes familiar with the three-year lectionary’s style of readings, and its cost is far less than that of any other option we discussed.
In the fall of 2024, the Bishop of Central Florida authorized five parishes to use the Prayer Book Society’s lectionary beginning on Advent 2024 through the Sunday Next before Advent 2027, with the additional condition that feedback be gathered from parishioners, and a draft report be submitted to the Standing Committee (of the General Convention) on Liturgy and Music prior to the 2027 General Convention, and that a final report be compiled and submitted after the conclusion of the initial three-year trial. As well, pending the results of the first year of implementation, the bishop has expressed his openness to expanding authorization to other parishes beginning in Advent 2025.
In just a little more than two months of use at the time of this writing, feedback so far has been extremely positive. Parishioners at one parish who are a part of a feedback committee have noted clearer connections between the readings and collects, highlighting a distinct theme for each Sunday. At another parish, there has been extreme excitement over the changes with the seasonal themes becoming much more evident during the Scriptural progression through Advent, Epiphany, and Gesimatide.
In Canada, use of the OT Supplement would require authorization from the Bishop, but the Central Florida model may provide a useful example for parishes in Canada interested in a return to the traditional Prayer Book lectionary, which would similarly answer the cry of the faithful who wish to see Jesus in their lectionary!