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Annual lectionary

Computer-readable versions of the Common Worship Lectionary 2008 to 2009

Introduction

Church House Publishing annually publishes a booklet which presents the recommended Bible readings (references only) for every day and principal festival worked out for that particular year. Readings for weekdays are also included. The most recent publication covers the period from Advent 2008 to Advent 2009. It is available in both a standard booklet size and a large format.

A new electronic experiment

In 2001, the Liturgical Publishing Group authorized a one year experiment to make available the text of the Lectionary 2001 to 2002 as an electronic file to download. Since it was an experiment, the file was made available free of charge. Usually such "value added" material would not be provided freely - payment would be required. The experiment proved such a success that the Lectionary has been provided every year since.

In recent years, Church House Publishing has had to recognise the costs involved in producing an accurate, reliable and timely version of the Lectionary as a digital resource, and so this and future years' lectionaries will be chargeable products. Our reluctance to charge for this resource has been tempered by the increasing awareness in the world of the value of digital products, and by encouraging comments from many of you that such a valuable resource is well worth a small charge.

The files are available from the Church House Publishing website. They have been published on 31st October 2008, and have been made available, for a limited time only and for the last time, free-of-charge. A page of information on the CHP website gives more information and instructions about downloading and using these files.

The two versions

There are still two files to choose from. You can download the 'e-calendars' format (which is optimised for electronic calendars, and Microsoft Outlook® in particular) or the 'spreadsheet' format, which is a more traditional spreadsheet format that could be more easily used in software like Microsoft Excel®.

Misuse of data

While these files provide the 2008-2009 lectionary data free-of-charge, users should not interpret this provision as a licence to break copyright restrictions. The material, like the rest of Common Worship, is subject to copyright restrictions. Please use the information on the copyright page, the Copyright Notice page for the dynamic Daily Prayer provision and the downloadable file A Brief Guide to Liturgical Copyright to ensure that you are using Common Worship in a responsible way. If you have any queries about copyright or wish to enquire about obtaining permission to use this material, please email Church House Publishing.

Please note that, while there is technically nothing stopping you from forwarding the files to all your friends via email, we would prefer you to encourage them to visit this site directly. Our ability to sustain this provision is reliant on the honesty of our users.

Palm version

Simon Kershaw has produced a palm version of these downloads and made his work available online. Visit kershaw.org.uk/palm to find out more.