Thursday 13 August 2009

A response to a question.

I have been asked on my previous post what 'Ordinary 20 year B' means so for Bob and any other readers who may wonder I will try to explain.
Some churches use a series of readings from the Bible throughout the year which are published in a sort of calendar which is called a lectionary.
The Methodist Church along with others use what is known as the Revised Common Lectionary, sometimes referred to as RCL. This lectionary covers a three year period designated year A, year B, Year C with the year beginning on the first Sunday in Advent and ending the following year on the Sunday before Advent (sometimes known as Christ the King Sunday). To give some cohesiveness to the process each year features on one of the gospels interspersed with parts of the fourth gospel. Matthew, Mark and Luke are used with John as the filler so to speak. There will be other reading listed and it is fairly normal to find an Old Testament Reading, a Psalm and a reading from one of the letters in the New testament listed as well. People leading worship services will often use one or more of the suggested reading as the basis for their sermons.
The Christian Year is split into times such as Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost along with other odd Sundays such as Trinity Sunday. Periods outside of the seasons listed above are classed as 'Ordinary Time' and this week is week 20 of ordinary time in year B.
I hope this is helpful to any readers who wondered but were afraid to ask and thanks Bob for asking and more importantly still reading!

1 comment:

Bob the Black Country Brummie said...

Thank you for clarifying that for me. I think I understand.