Beyond the Lectionary

Readers of Year D: A Quadrennial Supplement ... will have seen in the Acknowledgements that, in the course of bringing the project to print, I came to learn of others who have been led to undertake similar proposals,  that were (from what I can tell) entirely independent of one another (see pp. x-xii). The inescapable conclusion I draw from this is that such an expansion at this juncture is clearly of the Spirit:

it is important for the church to recognize that the Spirit has been at work in a variety of ways, over a long period of time, among people of diverse denominations and theological perspectives, seeding such expansive work on a number of fronts. I also wish to strongly affirm the work that the Spirit does in the prayerful quiet of the pastor’s study as a corrective to the way we (especially we Presbyterians) often assume everything must be done: by committee. — Year D, p. xi.

Then, the other day, I had the most gracious letter from a UCC pastor, David Ackerman, who has a similar expansive proposal, Beyond the Lectionary, coming out this spring on Circle Books. 

David is even starting to post some resources to go with it at his new blog, and (not surprisingly) many of these resources will be inspired from the same texts (esp. where the Psalms, NT, and Gospels are concerned) that are found in Year D. Although one can surely expect some variation in the arrangement of the reading schedule, one will see similarities as well: e.g., "the narrow gate" occurs in the Sundays after Epiphany, et al. 

David was even kind enough to mention me here. Head on over and check out what this brother has done.