You will find New Zealand’s Lectionary Te Maramataka 2022 PDF online (1.57 MB – click link to download). Page numbers of the printed booklet are identical to the online version.
I am delighted that this year, the full collection of collects that I was asked to draft, are included [You can read more, here]. Six persons were asked to produce traditional, Trinitarian collects connected to the Gospel reading. For Year C, I was asked to produce collects for Ordinary Time; The Very Reverend Dr Trevor James was asked to produce collects for the Seasons. After the Baptism of the Lord, some people (as I do) regard the weeks following as being in Ordinary Time (my collects are, in this Lectionary, the second option). Others regard these Sundays as being in the Season of Epiphany (Trevor James providing the first option). [Two collects are provided in the Lectionary for 6 February – Ordinary 5, not Epiphany 5 – in this case, my collect is the first one, and Trevor’s Epiphany 5’s is the second].
Using any other collect continues to be allowed.
The rest of this post is just a collection of comments from a quick first glance. There is much in a publication such as this that is good and is of value, helping connect to the world-wide church, and back through the traditions of the centuries, while grounding us in this place in the South Pacific, at this time. Those tend to mostly be when the lectionary booklet expresses what we have agreed together – including celebrations of days that are international and ecumenical, as well as of persons who have expressed God’s love and life on these shores.
In a document like a lectionary, the devil, of course, is in the detail. That detail will, for some, appear as nitpicking (gnatpicking?). Pleasingly, some errors noted on this site in previous years have been corrected.
On the publication of A New Zealand Prayer Book/He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa (ANZPB/HKMOA), much was made of the “A” – it is A New Zealand Prayer Book [the Te Reo Māori title of this Prayer Book emphasises the same – “He” not “Te”]. Anglicans were not arrogant enough to claim production of THE New Zealand Prayer Book. Year by year, however, the Lectionary calls it TheNew Zealand Prayer Book [Lectionary booklet page 2].
“Propers” (Arabic numerals) are in – described as the “numbering system of the Revised Common Lectionary” (page 7). Propers go 1, 2, skip 3-6, then 7. Christmas propers (Roman numerals I, II, III) are also in. There, Propers I, II, and III (Roman numerals) are followed immediately by Propers 1, 2, and 3 (Arabic numerals). And the instructions around their use are confusing (can “Proper II and the collect, Proper 2, be used for Midnight or only on ‘Christmas Day at Dawn’?)
Some errors continue. General Synod Te Hinota Whanui (GSTHW) went to significant effort (includng debate in every diocesan synod and hui amorangi, then debated again at the next meeting of General Synod Te Hinota Whanui) about the use of “of, in, or after” in titles for Sundays. The agreement was Sundays “of Epiphany” – yet the Lectionary continues to call them Sundays “of the Epiphany”.
Our church’s formulary (agreement) is that “Ordinary time is the period after the Feast of the Presentation of Christ” (February 2). Yet the first Sunday after The Presentation, rather than being called the “1st Sunday in Ordinary Time” (following our GSTHW ruling) is called the “5th Sunday in Ordinary Time”. There is no sign of the 4th or earlier Sundays in Ordinary Time. [My own solution to this would be to change the formulary, and have our Ordinary Time begin the day after the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord following majority Christianity and the originators of Ordinary/Counting Time concept].
Issues such as this arise because our church is attempting, rather than having our own thought-through consistent approach, to stitch together Church of England, Roman Catholic, Revised Common Lectionary, and other systems.
The 5th Sunday in Lent (April 3) is optionally called “Passion Sunday” while there is no mention of the Passion. Ecumenical, international reform has the reading of the Passion on the 6th Sunday in Lent (as our Lectionary does also). The title “Passion Sunday” is, hence, best reserved for that international, ecumenical agreement.
“after” was not an option agreed to by GSTHW but “Sunday after Ascension” is an option in the Lectionary for 29 May.
On page 46 begins readings for “the 3rd Week of Lent”. Should that be “in Lent”? Furthermore, these readings are said to originate in “CWL”. There is no indication what CWL stands for or its status in our church or why there are not similar readings provided for the 1st and 2nd weeks “of Lent”.
The situation with CW is fraught. While the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia has binding, formulary-level readings which we have agreed to use, on about 15 feast days the Lectionary booklet has the heading CW instead. It is certainly not the case that “On a few occasions where provision is not made in RCL or in ANZPB/HKMOA, material has been included from Common Worship” (p.2).
It is simply not true, to take the March 27 occurrence of CW, that “provision is not made in RCL or in ANZPB/HKMOA” for Mothering Sunday, March 27 (Lectionary p48). A full page of resources is provided for this, including a set of readings, in ANZPB/HKMOA page 690.
The 19 March occurrence of CW is instructive. 19 March in the Lectionary is a bold-type St Joseph of Nazareth (page 45). In ANZPB/HKMOA St Joseph of Nazareth is “ordinary type” (ie. NOT bold) on ANZPB/HKMOA page 16. There is no reference to St Joseph of Nazareth in the list of ANZPB/HKMOA page 8. Normally, in such a context, the lectionary would simply provide readings from the (non-binding New Zealand Anglican resource) For All the Saints (FAS). The 2022 Lectionary booklet does that, in this case, but adds the CW resources.
There is no allowance for “St Peter alone” (CW provisions 29 June, page 85). ANZPB/HKMOA commemorates “St Peter and St Paul” (bold in the actual ANZPB/HKMOA, not bold in the {draft?} online ANZPB/HKMA).
Sunday, 17 July (Lectionary page 90) provides CW readings for “NATIONAL BIBLE SUNDAY”. Our agreed readings for that Sunday are those of the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Using the CW readings seems to me to be a breach of our agreements? By all means, sing, pray, and preach about the Bible on 17 July, but if you cannot do that along with our three agreed Bible readings and Psalm, there seems to me something seriously lacking in the formation of your community and your leadership.
With RCL’s provision and two other sets of readings in ANZPB/HKMOA page 671 for All Saints’ Day, I don’ t know that there is justification to add CW’s into the Lectionary booklet on page 129. To be fair – with only 7 examples of CW in 2022 Lectionary booklet, this is a good improvement on the 15 or so unjustified uses a couple of years ago.
As in previous years, I would be interested to know where this lectionary booklet gets the ruling from: “The reading from Acts must be used each Sunday in Eastertide” (pages 58ff). It may very well be a good idea – but where does “must” come from? We are only required to follow formularies of our church – not what is indicated by this lectionary booklet. This is an important principle. Where the lectionary booklet does not conform to the formularies, we must follow the formularies, not the lectionary booklet. Where the lectionary booklet sets requirements beyond what the formularies require, we do not need to follow the booklet.
[Furthermore, as an aside, where does “Eastertide” come from in this lectionary booklet? Our formularies consistently call this “The Season of Easter”.]
Each year, I have been noting our Anglican Church of Or suggestion to have all four colours in the lectionary for the Second Sunday in November (10 November). The colours in the lectionary booklet are not required to be followed – in fact, the lectionary booklet itself claims it is simply collating “common practice in most parishes” page 4.
Other issues of the Anglican Church of Or continue.
November 20 can be:
Christ the King Sunday
or The Reign of Christ Sunday
or 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time
or Sunday before Advent
or Aotearoa Sunday
or Feast of Christ in All Creation
or, of course, A Spring Festival of Praise to the Creator (see page 157).
Are there any things you notice as you skim through the lectionary booklet for 2022 – things you like; things you think can be improved?
UPDATE: Thanks to Fr Howard Leigh for pointing out that the collect for the 8th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 27, is missing. It should be:
God our rock,
New Collects
the solid ground of our being;
help us dig deeply into your rich soil,
graft us into Christ the good tree,
so that we bear fruit that will last;
through Jesus who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
How easy it is to be pernickety about the minor issues while more fundamental issues become lost in the hurley-burley of pointless argument.
Diversity is a natural feature of creation.
Homogenisation is boring, unhealthy and restrictive..
I come from a place of relative ignorance, however I am wondering if 27 February could also be The Transfiguration? Would appreciate your comment Bosco.
Thanks, Rosie. The RCL, which is a formulary of our Church to which you vow and sign up to, includes The Transfiguration, as you indicate, as an option on the Sunday directly prior to Lent. The lectionary booklet published by our Church is not a formulary of our Church – if there is a discrepancy between the booklet and our formularies, you must follow our formularies. I do not have before me our Church decision about RCL. What I do have before me is that until 2016, the Transfiguration option prior to Lent was in our Church’s lectionary booklet. Its omission since 2017 is without any explanation that I can ascertain. My preference is for the Transfiguration as the Second Sunday in Lent – it is the older, more widespread tradition (and also included as an option in RCL). But, as far as I can tell, using the Transfiguration this year on 27 February conforms to our formularies. I hope that helps? If you or any other reader here have at hand any other information about this (or discover any), I would appreciate a comment here – or another contact. Blessings.
Thank you, appreciate your response very much.
Kia ora Fr Bosco,
Just looking at the Christmas Collects and unexpectedly found myself confused as where to find Propers I, II, and III. They aren’t in the lectionary, they don’t seem to be in ANZPB 2006 nor ANZPB 2020, although 2020 provides Collects for Years A, B, and C as well as readings for Propers I, II, and III?
Not exactly sure where Collects for Propers I, II, and III are meant to be located? It doesn’t seem to be very clear from what I can see.
—
Nga mihi,
Fr Ben
Yes, Fr Ben – confused and confusing, and increasingly so, is how “common prayer” is resourced in our ‘Anglican Church of Or’. In our lectionary booklet we have these “Propers” with Roman Numerals; we also have “Propers” with Arabic numerals which used to have no explanation – now, at least, the latter do. But the former do not. We seem to have dropped (although I’m sure they are formularies) the actual NZPB/HKMA “Christmas Day at Midnight”, “Christmas Day during the day” – first service and second service, and the 2020NZPB has, instead, three “Propers” with no explanation at all. These, of course, are not propers, as you and I would understand that word – with a collect, preface, etc.
A Blessed Christmas to you and yours,
Bosco+