Liberal resources in the old lectionary

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, if you used a lectionary in the pre-Vatican II/pre-CCT lectionary days — and you weren’t from one of the Eastern churches — it was almost certainly the traditional Western lectionary. While today its use is most associated with very conservative folks, this wouldn’t be true of past generations of liberals, say in the Episcopal, Lutheran and Reformed churches.

So what happened to their lectionary planning and preaching resources? Their guides and aids to worship?

By Scott Wells

Scott Wells, 46, is a Universalist Christian minister doing Universalist theology and church administration hacks in Washington, D.C.

3 comments

  1. One of the best things about the traditional lectionary is there are centuries worth of old sermons by some liberal heavyweights to draw on. There are a number of collections of Paul Tillich’s sermons (maybe still in print, but I usually see a copy or two in every decent used bookstore I visit). These all use the traditional lectionary.

  2. Scott – I use the one-year lectionary of the Liberal Catholic Church. It’s based to some degree on the older Roman and Anglican lectionaries, but with significant changes. I’ve used it for some years now, and have found it very serviceable. Also, as the LCC’s theology was/is universalist, the collects and readings reflect this. All the various branches of the LCC publish “The Liturgy of the Liberal Catholic Church” which includes the lectionary – stalbanpress.com is one site that sells it, and I see a number of used copies on bookfinder.com. The readings are given in the KJV, but that is easily adjusted if you prefer a modern translation.

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