The lectionary used by most churches today works on a three-year cycle – hence the references you see in Roots resources to Year A, B or C. This lectionary is called the Revised Common Lectionary or ‘RCL’ (published 1992), and is the result of many churches and denominations working together with the aim of having a simple and clear lectionary that everyone could use. 
Each year of the three-year cycle takes one Gospel as its focus – in year A, Matthew; year B is Mark, and Luke in year C. John’s Gospel is used in every year, particularly during the Christmas and Lent/Easter seasons. In seasonal time, the Old Testament, Psalm, and New Testament/Epistle readings are chosen to complement the Gospel reading. 

In Ordinary Time,  there are two ‘tracks’ or plans of readings. In the semi-continuous track one, the Old and New Testament and Gospel readings all follow through books in sequence (with gaps); there is no clear connection between the Old Testament and Gospel readings. In track two, the Gospel and New Testament readings are the same as in track one, but the choice of Old Testament and Psalm are once again influenced by the Gospel reading. In different years, Roots resources explore both track one and track two readings, so we can cover the whole of scripture and read the Old testament passages in a narrative flow.

Some churches and denominations regard the lectionary as guidance only, but not binding. Others have rules about where and when it must be used.  But perhaps the more interesting question is the one with which we started: why? In short, because it presents the Bible as one cohesive story – God's story – rather than isolated stories, and shows the unified story arc from creation to redeption to restoration. 

As a way of structuring Christian teaching, the lectionary gives us a way to annually inhabit the big story of God- and so to experience the nature of God, recognise what it means to be human, and what it means to be part of the people of God. This way of living in the spiraling cycle of scripture, forms us as people of the book more than a propositional didactic approach. Or to put it another way, as the Baptist theologian and writer, John Colwell said, some years after discovering the calendar and lectionary, ‘without any compromise of my Baptist or Reformed convictions… it felt like coming home.’ 

The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) provides a three-year cycle of Sunday readings based on the three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. Each Gospel is allocated to a year:

• Matthew in Year A
• Mark in Year B
• Luke in Year C. 

Through the course of each year, much of the text of the relevant Gospel is read in Sunday worship.  John’s Gospel is used to supplement this, predominatly during Christmas and Lent. 

Each week the lectionary provides:

• an Old Testament reading
• a psalm
• a Gospel reading 
• an epistle reading (one of the New Testament letters or the Book of Acts).

From the four weekly readings, Roots' content focuses primarily on one passage from the Revised Common Lectionary. We tend to stay with a Bible book for a season, e.g. exploring Paul's letters, or following the Gospel of Matthew, or the life of Moses, helping the church to develop Biblical literacy and building connection between the weeks.

If for any reason you would prefer to focus on a different reading than the one we have chosen, we have an archive of 25 years of content, including more than eight lectionary cycles, so you can easily find resources highlighting an alternate focal passage.

In the weeks in which Common Worship (for the Church of England) offers alternative readings to the RCL, we provide materials online. Sometimes Common Worship only stipulates one alternate Bible reading so we signpost to Bible notes on that passage. Sometimes all four Bible passages are different, and in such cases, we will provide a full Sunday's resources.
 
Each week, the Roots Worship Together and Children & Youth resources explore the same themes and the same reading, so everyone can learn as a community - whatever their age. This promotes intergnerational conversations and encourages faith at home as the discussion can continue over a shared meal or throughout the week. Our Thrive resource is a dowloadable PDF that offers ways for households to creatively explore and interact on the Bible theme throughout the week. This PDF can be shared digitally or printed and handed out each week.

Our Bible notes include a section called 'linking the readings' where a common theme between the readings is highlighted.

In most recent years, if our focus reading is different to the Gospel reading, we will endeavor to bring both the Gospel and the Epistle or Old Testament reading together in conversation in our Worship Together resources, highlighting how the Bible is one story.

The lectionary covers most Bible passages, so Roots has resources covering most scriptures you would want to teach on in your church. You can search by Bible passage and COMING SOON! by Theme.

Alternatively you may want to look for series like Paul's World, Paul's Letters, Revelation or some of our Old Testament series which you could study at any time of the year. We will develop many of these as PDF bundles to purchase and download in our shop. But it is often most economical to subscribe to have access to all of these resources and our 25 year archive.