Sunday Morning Texts
Consultation on Common Texts, an ecumenical body formed in the mid-1960's for consultation on worship renewal among the Christian churches of the United States and Canada. The RCL gives a scheme of readings for Sundays and a few main feast days. Users of the RCL will read the greater part of the Bible in three years. Year A concentrates on the Gospel of Matthew, while Year B focuses on the Gospel of Mark, and Year C on Luke. The Gospel of John is read chiefly around Christmas, Lent and Easter, and during Year B, as Mark is shorter than the other two Synoptic Gospels. Readings from the rest of the New Testament, the Old Testament and the Psalms round out the selection for each week. Sometimes readings from the Apocryphal / Deutero-Canonical books appear in the lectionary. When this occurs, there is always an alternative reading from the Old Testament.
The term lectionary can be applied both to a scheme of readings (as used here), or to the readings themselves, generally published in book form.
