Friends:

A warm greeting from both of us.

We’ve been hearing from some of you about the choice of lections in Feasting on the Word during the Season after Pentecost. As you know, Feasting on the Word follows the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) as developed by the Consultation on Common Texts. The RCL offers two streams of Old Testament texts for the Season after Pentecost: a semicontinuous stream, which moves through stories and characters in the OT, and a complementary stream, which ties the Old Testament texts to the theme of the Gospel texts for that day. Some denominational traditions favor one over the other. For instance, Presbyterians and Methodists generally follow the semicontinuous track, while Lutherans and Episcopalians generally follow the complementary track.

We chose to cover the complementary stream for Year A, to split between the complementary and semicontinuous streams for Year B, and to cover the semicontinuous stream for Year C. We did this to provide for the maximum coverage of texts from the Old Testament, as well as to make this resource useful for the widest number of denominational traditions. (The official Web site for the RCL has a good explanation of these and other differences in the RCL, along with a calendar. It can be found at http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu.)

However, because of the feedback we’ve received from you, we have decided to commission essays on the lections not in the print volumes, so that the complete complementary and semicontinuous streams will be available for all three years. This will begin with the Season after Pentecost for Year C, in May 2010. You will hear more about the details from Westminster John Knox as we get closer to that date.

Thank you again for being a subscriber to Feasting on the Word.

Sincerely,
David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor



Co-General Editors, Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary