In the year 2001 the present Alternative Service Book (ASB) produced by the General Synod in 1980 will come to an end. The final shape of a new prayer book has yet to be determined, but at the beginning of Advent (November 30th) permission has been given for the new Lectionary (Bible Readings) and Collects (Prayers) for Sundays to be used. At a recent meeting of the Church Council we decided to start using these and they have all been beautifully produced by the Redemptorist Publications at Alton.
The texts
The Revised Common Lectionary has already been in use by many other churches for some years, and it will be good that English Anglicans will be using the same texts for our Sunday Eucharist that many other churches are already familiar with. Although "themes" as such have now gone, as we have been used to in ASB, there will now be a greater stress on continuous reading from holy scripture instead.
The Christian Year
Most Sundays will now be marked as "Sundays of..." rather than "Sundays after..." with the idea that the thrust of the particular season runs through the whole period.
The Epiphany Season runs up to Candlemass, with the short intervening period between Candlemass and Lent being called "Sundays in ordinary time". We will now celebrate the full fifty days of Easter ending at Pentecost instead of the old Anglican idea of ending at the Ascension, and we return to the old Prayer Book idea of "Sundays after Trinity"!
The rest of the new Prayer Book will appear in due course and we shall then have to get used to the new rites of the Eucharist, Baptism, Confirmation, Funerals, etc. More anon!
A very happy Christmass to you all and a blessed New Year for 1998. With my Prayers and Blessing,
Your friend and priest
written by Fr Malcolm Ferrier
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page last updated 10 DECEMBER 1997