Sacred Roots Workshop

150 Sacred Roots Workshop: Retr ieving the Great Tradi t ion in the Contemporary Church

congregation is either part of the ancient faith or the global Christian community.

7. The Church Year can protect us from arbitrary, idiosyncratic emphases that ignore or neglect the richness of the mystery of Christ from Incarnation to Second Coming!

E. It is “evangelically ecumenical”: It connects us to the global Christian movement’s worship, spirituality, and biblical preaching and teaching.

1. The Revised Common Lectionary is a Bible reading program drafted specifically in order to help congrega- tions who participate read through the major sections and stories of the Scriptures over a three- year period.

2. The lectionary is designed to run in three-year cycles; the gospel of Matthew determines the Gospel readings in the first year (Year A), the Gospel of Mark in the second year (or Year B), and the Gospel of Luke in the third year (or Year C). The Gospel of John is read throughout the lectionary at certain times in each of the three years. 3. The practice of reading the Scriptures in public worship services dates back from ancient practices in the early Church. This emphasis on the Word lay at the heart of Christian faith and worship, and the public reading of Scripture accommodated a large segment of the population which were illiterate.

4. This reading protects us from ignoring whole sections of Scripture because we feel they are “too hard,” “not relevant,” or “too controversial.”

5. When read in the setting of the life of Christ, the lectionary becomes a way that urban Christians can hear