The Lectionary

Scripture reading and proclamation of the Word at First Presbyterian Church is ordinarily guided by the use of a lectionary. A lectionary is a device which assigns various portions of the Bible to be read on given occasions in the Christian year. For each Lord's Day, a lectionary will prescribe four selections:

The First Lesson: usually from the Old Testament
The Psalm
The Epistle
The Gospel

In the Presbyterian Church (USA), the minister who is preaching is responsible for the selection of Scripture to be read in all services of public worship. At First Presbyterian Church, care is taken so that, over a period of time, the people will hear the full message of Scripture. To that end, we are like many other Protestants in that we use the Revised Common Lectionary. This particular lectionary was developed in 1983 as an ecumenical revision of an earlier lectionary.

The Revised Common Lectionary runs in three-year cycles: the Gospel readings in the first year (Year A) are taken from the Gospel of Matthew, those in the second year (or Year B) from the Gospel of Mark, and those in the third year (or Year C) come from the Gospel of Luke. Portions of the Gospel of John are read at certain festivals every year.

To learn more about the lectionary visit : http://divinity.library.vanderbilt.edu/lectionary