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the Sunday readings
Since the First Sunday of Advent, 2001, St. Luke's Church with the encouragement of the Bishop has followed the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) which was authorized for continued trial use by the Seventy-third General Convention of the Episcopal Church in the summer of 2000. Additionally, during the season of Pentecost (June through November), St. Luke's uses the "related" readings rather than the "course" readings of the RCL. The "related" readings are found as the first reading each Sunday and are thematically harmonious with the Gospel. The "course" readings are semi-continuous readings whose thematic resemblance to the Gospel is coincidental. The RCL, like The Lectionary in The Book of Common Prayer, is arranged in a three-year cycle whose years are named Year A, Year B, and Year C. Year A always begins on the First Sunday of Advent in years evenly divisible by three. (For example, 2001 divided by 3 is 667 with no remainder. Year A, therefore began on Advent Sunday, 2001, which was December 2. Year B, therefore, will begin on Advent Sunday, 2002, which will be December 1.) The readings at all Sunday services, including the Said Eucharist on Saturday at five o'clock, are normally identical, and any differences among the services will be posted here. The translation of the Scriptures is the Revised Standard Version as copied in the Episcopal Church's The Rite Word 2000 (New York: Church Publishing, Inc., 2000). The other propers, the Collect of the Day and the Preface, are according to The Book of Common Prayer (1979). Please see "The Calendar of the Church Year" (Prayer Book, pages 15-33), "Collects: Contemporary" (Prayer Book, pages 211-246), and "Concerning the Lectionary" (Prayer Book, page 888).
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the hymns at St. Luke's Church
The Hymns, like the congregational settings of the Eucharist, at St. Luke's Church normally are taken from the Episcopal Church's The Hymnal 1982 and are selected for their liturgical and pastoral appropriateness. The season of the Church Year as well as the propers of the day (the readings, collect, and preface) set the themes which make hymns appropriate to the day. Marion Hatchett's Hymnal Studies Five: A Liturgical Index to The Hymnal 1982 (New York: Church Publishing, 1986) is followed though not slavishly in the selection of hymns. Care is given to select hymns that are readily singable and known to the worshippers at St. Luke's. From time to time, however, new hymns are introduced that are liturgically appropriate and thought to have the potential to be liked. With three hymns in a Sung Eucharist, the first is normally a "big," "gathering" hymn which is well-known and sets the themes of the season, the readings, and the service. The second hymn usually is divided around the Gospel and a "smaller" hymn focused, if possible, on themes contained in the Gospel. The final hymn, just after the dismissal, properly concerns the move from worship to consciously-active Christian life, and so hymns from the hymnal's sections "The Church," "The Church's Mission," "Christian Vocation and Pilgrimage," and "Christian Responsibility" frequently are selected, especially when no seasonal hymn suggests itself. During the Season of Pentecost, especially June through August, St. Luke's Church sings a Hymn of Praise, omitting the first or Processional Hymn, which replaces the Gloria in excelsis Deo, and hymns from the "Praise to God" section of the hymnal normally are chosen for this purpose.
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