A NEW DAILY OFFICE LECTIONARY

Reclaiming Thomas Cranmer's Vision

~ Rev. Michael Fry ~

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience, and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlast­ing life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Amen.[1]

 

Across North America, orthodox Anglicans have been seeking new structures and tools to help them to be able to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.”[2] Among these have been a series of new prayer books (e.g. those of the Reformed Epis­copal Church in 2003 and the Anglican Mission in the Americas in 2008). It is the expectation of many that this work will be furthered through The Common Cause Partnership and (hopefully) result in an edition that will be used widely throughout a new Anglican Province in North Amer­ica. With this new prayer book must come a new daily office lectionary.

 

We have strayed far from our roots.  The most damning evi­dence is found in Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s preface to the first English Prayer Book of 1549, which places the reading of the whole Bible at the forefront of his justification for the reformation of liturgy in 16^th-century England:

 

The ancient fathers . . . so ordered the matter, that all the whole Bible (or the greatest part thereof) should be read over once in the year, intending thereby, that the Clergy, and especially such as were Min­is­ters of the congregation, should (by often reading, and medi­tation of God’s word) be stirred up to godliness themselves, and be more able to exhort others by wholesome doctrine, and to confute them that were adver­saries to the truth. And further, that the people (by daily hear­ing of holy Scripture read in  the Church) should continual­ly pro­fit more and more in the knowledge of God, and be the more inflamed with the love of his true religion. But these many years passed, this godly and decent order of the ancient fathers hath been so altered, broken, and neglected, by plant­ing in uncertain stories, Legends, Responds, Verses, vain repetitions, Commemora­tions, and Synodals, that com­mon­ly when any book of the Bible was begun, before three or four Chapters were read out, all the rest were unread. And in this sort the book of Isaiah was begun in Advent, and the book of Genesis in Septuagesima; but they were only begun, and never read through. After a like sort were other books of holy Scripture used.[3]

 

From the above we can glean three clear priorities for the daily office lectionary:

 

·         Read “the whole Bible (or the greatest part thereof)”

·         Read it “once in the year” (i.e. don’t take two or three years)

·         Read the books through as a whole (without breaks that would hinder compre­hen­sion)

 

 

THE LECTIONARY OF 1549[4]

 

Old Testament

The first Anglican Prayer Book introduced the recitation of the whole Psalter in a 30-day pattern.  Thus the Psalms are the one Old Testament book that was read through twelve times in the year.  It must be noted, however, that this was actually a significant simplification of the long-held tra­di­tion in the church of reciting the whole Psalter once per week (a practice which continued in the Roman Catholic Church into the 20^th century).[5]

 

Of the remaining Canonical books of the O.T., 29 are read in their entirety. The great majority of four others are read (73% of Exodus[6], 75% of Numbers, 90% of Esther, and 98% of Genesis[7]).  Two more are heavily curtailed (we read only 19% of Ezekiel, and 11% of Leviticus). There are three books which are entirely omitted (1 & 2 Chronicles, and The Song of Sol­o­mon).

 

The pattern in the lectionary is to split the O.T. books between Morn­ing and Evening Prayer. For ex­ample: on January 2,[8] Genesis chapter 1 is read in the morning and chapter 2 in the evening—alternating back and forth until the whole book is completed at Morning Prayer on the 27^th.

 

Apocrypha

Our early Anglican reformers were very fond of the Apocrypha. All told, about three quarters of the Apocrypha is assigned with the only significant omissions being 1 & 2 Maccabees and the additions to Esther.[9] Nearly two months in the year are devoted to the Apo­crypha (54 days or 108 readings count­ing both Morning and Even­ing Prayer).

 

New Testament

The Pattern of the New Testament is different than the Old in that it is sequential within each office. For example, the second reading of Morning Prayer is an unbroken sequence of the Four Gospels and Acts, repeated three times in the year. Evening Prayer likewise starts with Romans and continues through the Epistles in canonical order through Jude (also repeating three times in the year).

 

The glaring omission of the 1549 N.T. lectionary is that it includes only two readings from the book of Revelation: chapters 1 & 22 on the feast day of St. John the Evan­gelist (December 27). Put in per­centage terms, over the course of a year one reads 300% of the first 26 books of the N.T., yet only 9% of Revelation. One wonders, if Martin Luther had put together our New Testament lectionary, would he have skipped the book of James (reportedly his least favorite)?  This omission, and that of the Song of Solomon in the O.T., set a dan­gerous precedent within Anglican­ism that only balloons as time pas­ses. The books and chapters which Cranmer terms “least edifying”[10] in 1549 change and expand with new generations and migrating mores (more on this subject below).

 

Holy Days

In the 1549 calendar, 11 days are given their own special set of readings which interrupt the conti­nuity of the lectionary.  Thus Cran­mer adheres to his principle of greatly curtailing interruptions in the sequential reading of the canonical books, while still setting the precedent that certain (few) days might be excepted from the rule.

 

 

THE PRESENT STANDARD (1871)

 

As the Prayer Book underwent revision, so did the lectionary.  In fact, if you were to buy a “1662 Book of Common Prayer” today it is most likely that you would find it contained the lectionary ap­proved by the Church of England in 1871 within its covers.[11] My own copy of the 1662 Book, picked up while studying in England, contains the following note behind the title page:

 

This edition includes the various amendments to the Book of Com­mon Prayer of 1662 that are con­tained in the following Mea­sures:

Clergy (Ordination and Mis­cel­­lan­eous Provisions) Mea­­sure 1964

Prayer Book (Miscellaneous Pro­­vis­ions) Measure 1965

Prayer book (Further Pro­vis­ions) 1968.[12]

 

Hint: this is no longer the lection­ary of your Anglican forebears.

 

While the lectionary of 1871 bears a family resemblance to that of 1549, it greatly expands the omis­sions, enters new realms of “polit­i­cal correctness” and also goes a long way toward undoing the sim­plicity that Cranmer et al sought to achieve in the 16^th century.

 

Old Testament

While approximately 83% of the O.T. was read in the 1549, by 1871 that figure is down to 68%.  And it’s not just genealogies and redundancies that are omitted.  The only books of the O.T. that are read in their entirety (apart from the Psalms which are still read monthly) are the shortest books—Ruth, and eight of the Minor Prophets. The editing of many books is heavy.  For example, all of The Book of Joshua is read in 1549, but less than half in 1879.  Isaiah remains popular (89%), but Jeremiah has fallen out of favor (46%).  Ezekiel’s stock is up (from 19% to 44%), but Exodus’ is down (from 73% to 45%).  These are just a few samples.

 

Since a careful and exhaustive treatment of the migration of pri­or­ities would be book-length, a few anecdotes will have to serve:  In 1549 all of Genesis is read except chapter 10 (as noted above). By 1879 there are fourteen slices taken out, some of them more than a chapter in length. For example, 19.1-11 and 19.31-38 are omitted (the first includes the men of Sodom desiring to rape Lot and the second includes Lot’s daughters sleeping with their father while he is drunk). It is hard to escape the idea that Victorian sensibilities have guided the edit­ing of this lectionary.  With that in mind, it is no surprise that the Song of Solomon is the only book of the Old Testament to be com­pletely absent from this lectionary (a carry-over from 1549).[13]

 

A further anecdote reinforcing this point is the absurd omission of 2 Samuel 13.1-37 (The rape of Tamar and Amnon’s subsequent murder at the hands of his brother Absalom). Without this episode, the next seven chapters of 2 Sam­uel make no sense!  Nor do we see the complete fulfillment of the judg­ment pronounced by Nathan the prophet in 12.6—and that’s just for starters!  This is clearly a new generation grabbing hold of Cranmer’s exception and elimi­nat­ing passages that are “least edi­fying”—only there are apparently more unedifying scriptures by 1871 than there were in 1549.  Any guesses as to how this trend continues into the present cen­tury?

 

Another snippet:  There is only one passage of 1 Chronicles in the lectionary — 29.10-30 (in 1549 there were none) — one may wonder why?  It turns out that this is substituted in place of 1 Kings 1.28-chapter 2.  So we still read of David’s death and Solomon’s crown­ing, but we miss the messy details concerning Solomon’s ex­e­cu­tion of his political enemies.

 

A final tidbit to give you a picture of the kind of editing found in this lectionary is this fact:  25% of the book of Proverbs is omitted. How random is that?  There is a whole school of devotion, widely prac­ticed today, that reads all of Pro­verbs every month. Can you find 25% of Proverbs that’s not worth reading?

 

Apocrypha

The Apocrypha is still read in the 1871 lectionary, but it has clearly fallen in priority. While most of the books of the Apocrypha were read in 1549 (accounting for 74% of the potential chapters), by 1871 only portions of three books are read—Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom & Baruch (22% of the total).  The amount of time devoted to the Apocrypha is reduced from 54 days (108 read­ings) in 1549 to 21 days (42 read­ings) in 1871.

 

New Testament

There are a few significant changes to the New Testament portion of the lectionary—mostly, in my opin­ion, for the better. The first change is that rather than reading the Gospels and Acts only in Morning Prayer and Epistles in the Evening.  The Bible is read from Matthew – Jude in both Morning and Evening Prayer. Also, most of the Book of Revelation is now included (but read only once compared to the other 26 books of the N.T. which are read twice).

 

There are three and a half chap­ters of the New Testament which are never read: Revelation 9, 13 & 17; and Matthew 1.1-17 (The Gen­e­alogy of Christ). Apparently Rev­ela­tion is now mostly, but not entirely, edifying; but the 17 verses which begin the New Testament (in Matthew’s Gospel) have somehow become too much to bear.

 

Holy Days

Here the 1871 lectionary makes a serious attempt to undo the good Cranmer and his allies did in sim­pli­fying the lectionary. From 11 Holy Days in 1549 we now have 22 interrupting the flow of readings.  But that does not even count an additional 12 floating Holy Days as­sign­ed for Holy Week, Easter Week, Ascension & Whitsun Week.  So not only are there 22 days in­serted in the cycle, but the addi­tional 12 actually bump the set read­ings so that they will not be read at all that year. This yields a total of more than a month of in­ter­ruptions in the 1871 lectionary.

 

It gets worse. There is also an en­tirely different schedule of “Les­sons Proper For Sundays.”[14] I’m not sure how commonly it was employed, but if this schedule is used as well, this would substitute for the Old Testament lesson for both Morning and Evening Prayer the first day of every week. It is no small leap from there to what we have in many of our modern lec­tion­aries — a completely different set of lessons for Sunday which seriously compromise the ability to read and comprehend Books of the Bible as a whole through the Daily Office.[15]

 

 

MODERN LECTIONARIES

 

The most damaging feature of many modern Anglican lection­aries is not the passages they omit (as egregious as those omissions are), but rather that they follow the liturgical year!  The abandonment of the calendar-year lectionary was accomp­lished in the American church with the introduction of the 1928 Prayer Book (and con­tin­ues to this day). You will find there is a lot of company on this point among North American Anglicans.  For example, the daily office lec­tion­ary in the new REC Prayer Book (2003) follows the liturgical year as well as that of the “tra­di­tional” Prayer Book of the Anglican Church of Canada (1962).

 

While many modern lectionaries continue (and expand upon) the practice of selective scripture omis­sion   according   to   prevail­ing “theo­logical correctness” and mores[16], the liturgical year calen­dar makes it impossible to either read “the whole Bible (or the greatest part thereof) . . . once in the year”[17] or to avoid dropping entire books of the Bible in the middle never to return to them in the course of the year.

 

For an illustration, let’s look at the 1943 lectionary that is currently published in the American “1928 Prayer Book”. A calendar study of the first thirty-five years of the twenty-first century yielded the fol­lowing results regarding the fre­quency of certain weeks appearing:

 

 

What scriptures do you assign to the fourth week after Epiphany (to be read only half the time); how about the 5^th week (1/3 of the time) or the 6^th (almost never)?

You have a similar result with the Sundays after Trinity (or Christ­mas). In addition to the uncer­tainty regarding weeks actually ap­pear­­ing in a particular calendar year, you have the jolt of reading one set of scriptures, then drop­ping them completely when a trans­i­tion is made from one season to another (Epiphany to pre-Lent; Trinity to pre-Advent, etc. . . .).  We have returned to the state of affairs that Cranmer decried in 1549 when he wrote:

[T]hat commonly when any book of the Bible was begun, before three or four Chapters were read out, all the rest were unread. And in this sort the book of Isaiah was begun in Advent, and the book of Gen­e­sis in Septuagesima; but they were only begun, and never read through.  After a like sort were other books of holy Scrip­ture used.[18]

 

In an effort to put together an effective liturgical-year lectionary, you might attempt to put “less important” books in the infre­quently occurring weeks (e.g. books of the Apocrypha), but you run out of regularly occurring weeks before you can even come close to covering the canonical scrip­tures in any complete or sen­sible fashion.

 

 

A LECTIONARY FOR A RENEWED NORTH AMERICAN ANGLICANISM

 

The Goal of this lectionary is to honor Cranmer’s original priorities without making arbitrary judg­ments as to which of the canonical scriptures are edifying and which are not. For according to God’s own word: “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equip­ped for every good work.”[19]

 

The guiding principles in the orga­nization of this lectionary are as follows:

·         Read the whole Bible

·         Read the books in a some­what chronological order

·         Include separate readings for the major Holy Days of the Christian year

·         Provide flexibility for a one-year or two-year cycle

 

Old Testament

One or two Psalms are appointed for both Morning and Even­ing Prayer. The Psalter is recited through five times per year if both offices are read.  However, they are spaced in such a way that even if you divide the lectionary into a two-year cycle (reading the lessons for Morning Prayer in year-1 and Evening Prayer in year-2) you will still read the entire Psalter each year—more than twice.

 

In a break from early Anglican lectionaries, the remaining books of the Old Testament are not split between Morning and Evening Prayer. For example, you will read the whole of Genesis in Morning Prayer alone, etc. . . . As a whole, the O.T. readings of Morning Prayer primarily consist of the Historical books, with the addition of a few of the smaller prophetic books later in the year.

 

The O.T. readings of evening Prayer are primarily from the Wisdom and Prophetic writings, although you will also find Deu­teronomy, 1 & 2 Chronicles as well as 1 Maccabees. This is in order to provide a portion of both the Law and the story of the Davidic king­dom in both offices for those who wish to divide the readings into a two-year cycle.

 

Apocrypha

This lectionary maintains the tradition of reading a portion of the Apocrypha (though not at the ex­pense of any of the canonical books of the Old Testament).  Other than a few passages read on certain Holy Days (and February 29), the principle Apocryphal book included is the whole of 1 Mac­cabees.  This is read at the end of the year in Evening Prayer (or year-2 of a two-year cycle) in order to provide an historical bridge be­tween the Old and New Test­a­ments.

 

New Testament

The entire New Testament is read in both offices. The readings are staggered so that, for the most part, when a Gospel is being read in one office, an Epistle is being read in the other.

 

Holy Days

23 days out of the year (24 in leap years) have lessons apart from the continuous reading of the Bible.  This is to allow for special med­i­ta­tion on the chief Christian Holi­days of the year.  They are:

·         The Epiphany (January 6^th)

·         Ash Wednesday (anywhere from February 4 – March 10)

·         Holy Week (The Sunday - Saturday preceding Easter which can fall anywhere from March 22-April 25)

·         Easter Week (7 days cel­e­brating Jesus’ Resur­rec­tion)

·         The Ascension (anywhere from April 30 – June 3 depen­ding on the date of Easter)

·         The Feast of Pentecost and its Eve (Sat – Sun, 9 days after the Ascension)

·         Trinity Sunday (one week after Pentecost)

·         All Saints’ Day (November 1)

·         Christmas Eve and Day (December 24-25)

 

The Holy Days in italics above float from year to year. They are inclu­ded in the following lectionary on the average date of their occur­rence.

 

As it is assumed that Christians will be worshipping in community on the major Feast and Fast Days of the year, the Holy Day readings in this lectionary are intended to supplement the primary readings for the day. The appendix which follows the lectionary indicates what are to be considered the chief readings for the day and should be substituted for those in the lec­tion­ary if the reader is unable to attend public worship on any of those days.

 

ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS LECTIONARY

 

Old Testament

 

Gen           Genesis                              2 Chr         2 Chronicles                      Dan     Daniel

Exod         Exodus                              Ezra           Ezra                                   Hosea  Hosea

Lev            Leviticus                            Neh           Nehemiah                          Joel      Joel

Num          Numbers                            Esther        Esther                                Amos   Amos

Deut          Deuteronomy                    Job             Job                                    Ob       Obadiah

Josh           Joshua                               Psalm         Psalms                               Jonah   Jonah

Judg          Judges                               Prov           Proverbs                            Micah  Micah

Ruth          Ruth                                   Eccl           Ecclesiastes                       Nah     Nahum

1 Sam        1 Samuel                           Song          Song of Solomon               Hab     Habakkuk

2 Sam        2 Samuel                           Isaiah         Isaiah                                Zeph    Zephaniah

1 Kgs         1 Kings                              Jer              Jeremiah                           Hag     Haggai

2 Kgs         2 Kings                              Lam           Lamentations                     Zech    Zechariah

1 Chr         1 Chronicles                      Ezek          Ezekiel                               Mal      Malachi

 

                                                           

New Testament

 

Matt             Matthew                           Eph            Ephesians                           Heb             Hebrews

Mark             Mark                                Phil            Philippians                          James          James

Luke             Luke                                 Col            Colossians                          1 Pet           1 Peter

John              John                                 1 Thess      1 Thessalonians                  2 Pet           2 Peter

Acts              Acts of the Apostles          2 Thess      2 Thessalonians                  1 John         1 John

Rom             Romans                            1 Tim         1 Timothy                            2 John         2 John

1 Cor            1 Corinthians                   2 Tim         2 Timothy                            3 John         3 John

2 Cor            2 Corinthians                   Titus          Titus                                    Jude            Jude

Gal               Galatians                         Philem       Philemon                            Rev             Revelation

 

 

Apocrypha

 

1 Mac                             1 Maccabees

Sirach                             Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach

Wisd                              Wisdom of Solomon

Tobit                              Tobit

Pr. of Azariah                Prayer of Azariah and the Song of the Three Young Men

Susanna                         Susanna

Pr. of Manasseh             Prayer of Manasseh        (From the Appendix to the Vulgate)

 

 

JANUARY

 

 

FEBRUARY

 

 

MARCH