Now, here is a thing. Here is a wondrous thing.
Reading the Bible is an integral part of knowing about God, being a Christian, wanting to know more about the Christian faith and generally living the good life. However, most people haven’t a clue where to start with it.
Fortunately, the church in its wisdom publishes a list of suggested bible readings for every day of the year. Unfortunately, they are in a format that does not help people look things up very easily. You have to know which year of the two year cycle we are on, you have to know what season we are in and you have to know whether today’s readings have been budged out of the way by a festival. Then you have to look it all up in a spiral bound book which is falling to bits. (Trust me on this, it is falling to bits).
Anyway. As a further offering in my quest to make the spirituality of the church more accessible to everyone rather than just professionals, I thought I would produce a wee bookie with all the readings in for 2009.
So here it is – a Daily Prayer Calendar of Bible Readings.
So now you have your new year resolutions all sewn up. You can read the Bible every day using the same readings that are used in St Mary’s and in the wider Scottish Episcopal Church at Daily Prayer services. You can fit them into prayers if you want them or just do then at a time of day to suit you. Unless there is something more specific given, we do the Old Testament and Gospel at morning prayer in St Mary’s. The theory is, if we said Evening Prayer in public it would be the Epistle and Gospel.
What do you mean you don’t have a Bible? Go and get one. You want an Anglicised NRSV with Apocrypha. Stop making excuses.
I’ve also tagged onto the Daily Calendar a table of what colours we use on different days in church because people are always interested and I’ve included a list of the biblical abbreviations that are used in the tables.
Enough to get you started?
Any questions?
OSP also have a nice calendar.
I suspect some of your readers want a plain old NRSV with Apocrypha. The American version has the advantage of being in a nicer font, and saves trees for lack of all those extra ‘u’s.
I wish too that we would move to using the C of E lectionary for daily prayer. Now, I don’t advocate adapting to the C of E, but it gives a full set of readings for morning and evening prayer, with multiple psalms for each day. Scotland’s ‘three readings, one psalm’ spreads itself very thin over the course of two services.
Oh Mother lead not thy people into error.
I’m not going to argue about American vs British Spelling, but I do know that the people of Cowal and the People of the West End of Glasgow are united in their desire for Bibles in their ain tongue, which in these parts must surely be the Anglicized or even the Anglicised version.
As to the Church of England, I fear you will be wishing bad things upon us all. It will be announcements like, “It is Lent, so we use the form of prayer for Friday” and other such atrocities before we know where we are.
The trouble is, it starts with a “u” missing from the description of our Blessed Lord as Saviour of Us All. It seems innocent enough. Surely we tell ourselves, eternal damnation cannot depend upon the spelling of a single word. But should we allow it, it ends badly, with the appearance of the Wrong Coloured Candles on the Advent Wreath.
Do not lead your people into such foolish ways, I implore you.
That is FABULOUS!! Thank you 🙂
What no Blue for Advent or Black for All Souls?
Not in the official SEC list, no.
No pink either.
Before anyone starts.
Maybe not in the offical SEC list, but I am sure you could be persuaded.
…and as for Pink, I had not thought of that.
When would you use a Pink set?
Anything about the order Copes are worn on Easter Day? – before, during, after, outside……
I think you will find, Kelvin, that I would choose the Anglicized version for public worship, but would let the ex-pats read in their native tongue should they wish.
I have no desire to advocate things English. But until Scotland offers a fuller daily lectionary, I fear I must look South. In any case, we should have a common daily prayer lectionary and end this parochialism.
I always found the Lectionary in the 1929 Prayer Book comprehensive, and mourn its passing.
guadete and the fourth sunday in lent, stewart! We were appropriately pink at st.silas when celebrating the former recently.
I fear I am not being parochial but internationalist. Is it not the case that the basis of Scotland’s Daily Lectionary provision comes from the Colonies? In advocating the SEC daily lectionary, I might also be accused of advocating things American.
Make the most of it.
Stewart – I’ve already pointed out to one member of the clergy today that the Calendar in the 1929 prayer book is no longer authorised and that consequently his soul is in peril should he be tempted.
You’ve been warned.
An’ ther’ wuz us thinkin’ you’d be sittin’ wiv yer feet up an’ twiddlin’ yer thumbs now most of the festivities is past…..!
I suppose I am clinging to my youth – Prayer Book and 1970 grey book etc. However I do like the Blue Book – does anyone remember the orange book (I am sure I had a copy but cannot find it).
I guess in years to come the current SEC lectionary will become unauthorised and we will be having a similar discussion.
Turning to Pink Vestments – anyone for Pink at St Mary’s on Mothering Sunday?
Until we have a full purple set (or full sets of both blue and unbleached linen) and a full black set, I’m not even going to begin talking about pink.
the worst thing is when people use “rose” vestments but they’re actually closer to red! “rose” surely logically translates into “as pink as possible”
The unbleached linen option does sound fab.
Full sets – including Copes, Maniples, Burse, Veils and Apparels???
We shall concentrate on getting the paucity of purple and black dalmatics and tunicles sorted out before we start worrying too much about the rest.
I remember the orange book – I was on the Provincial Synod wot ratified it (at least, I think that was what was happening – I was a bit new to all that in these days. I think I’d been sent to the PS as a gesture towards (a) youth and (b) women)
so now we have a paucity of dalmatics and a paucity of psalms in this conversation.
Britain is never good at importing things from America. In this case, it took the readings, but left the psalms. The American daily prayer lectionary offers at least four psalms a day. Ours doesn’t include psalms at all (save for the eucharist), and the offerings in the prayer book lack diversity and breadth.
Would that it were otherwise.
I like cranberries. Does that count?
a culinary truce.
does that mean you are hoping to come to the cookie and cranberry muffin baking bloggers day?
have you set a date?
It is worth noting that if we had variable psalms every day, there could be no possiblity of success with my project of putting seasonal wee bookies into people’s hands for Daily Prayer. The more variability, the more it becomes something for professional God botherers, I think.
I will grant that.
But for God botherers who must say daily prayer day after day year after year, and for those who do so without tangible company, variety helps.
We haven’t set a date for cookie making. I will do so soon.
Bailey Pies?
Hmm. Like my grandmother’s Hermits, the glory of Bailey pies is in the story and I am reluctant to give away the recipe. Do you think the world really needs more Bailey pies?
(but I promise that when the time is right, I will make a mitre’s worth of them for you)
You are probably right. Bailey pies would lose their significance if they were the object of any old cake and cookie day.
I’d quite like to taste your grandmother’s Hermits though.
I’m quite sure that you will be far to busy on the day of your consecration to make me Bailey Pies. But it is a nice thought.
I’ll swap you some hermits for a picked hegg.
…and you know I don’t wear hats.
Heggs are hall gone. I’d have to henquire of the pickled ‘ens.
You can get the NRSV in both English and American versions at http://www.oremus.org (Apocrypha included). There are lots of ways to search through the Bible too.