Download Call to Worship Lectionary aids
These worship planning aids are designed to coordinate with the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), a
three-year system for reading biblical texts in worship on the Lord’s Day and other festivals of the Christian year. The RCL
represents the work of the Consultation on Common Texts, an ecumenical body of scholars and
denominational representatives in North America, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). While the
Roman Catholic Church uses a slightly different lectionary, the U.S. and Canadian Catholic churches have had
a voice in shaping the RCL. The Episcopal Church adopted the RCL beginning in Advent 2007. The RCL is
widely used by an increasing number of Protestant denominations.
Congregations and their liturgical leaders have found that using the lectionary allows for the reading of a
broad range of Scripture in worship and entering into the rhythms and patterns of the liturgical year.
Furthermore, the lectionary offers a discipline for the reading and preaching of texts that one might not
choose if left to one’s own devices, and a system that allows for coordinated worship planning between
pastors, musicians, artists, and worship committees.
Readers will notice that during Ordinary Time (from the Sunday after Trinity through Christ the
King/Reign of Christ), there are two streams of readings from the Old Testament. As a way of honoring the
lectio continua pattern of reading through Scripture, Presbyterian churches tend to follow the semicontinuous
readings. The psalm for the day is chosen to be sung or read in response to the reading from the Hebrew
scripture. Congregations of the United Church of Christ often follow the other stream, in which the Old
Testament readings are coordinated with the Gospel reading, as they are during the major liturgical seasons.
Here, too, the psalm for the day is designed to complement the reading from the Old Testament.
The suggestions for hymns are keyed to the readings, as well to the four-fold pattern reflected in the Book
of Common Worship. The hymn charts, then, offer hymns appropriate for Gathering, Word (with the various readings denoted), Eucharist and Sending.
Download the Introduction to the Lectionary Aids Year C. 
 These files are all in Adobe Acrobat format. For best results, right-click the link (or click and hold for Macintosh), select "save target as" and save the document to your desktop for viewing and printing.
General Resources for the Service for the Lord’s Day
These liturgical texts are not designated for a particular Sunday or festival in the lectionary, but might be used in any Service for the Lord’s Day. Many are intended to encourage leadership from the font and from the table.
Call to Worship:
Call to Confession
Declaration of Forgiveness
Invitation to Prayers of the People
Invitation to Offering
Invitation to the Table
Charge and Blessing:
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