Changes at Storypath: Narrative Lectionary Links Coming
For nearly six years, we have been posting links between children’s and youth literature and three passages from the Revised Common Lectionary for each Sunday of the year. This three year cycle of readings is used by many Protestant denominations to shape worship and education and our web statistics indicate that the Friday Lectionary Links are our most read feature at Storypath.
In late 2015, we began getting a few requests to add links to the passages from the Narrative Lectionary which, we admit, we didn’t know much about! As we learned more about this four year cycle of readings, we asked our readers for input and found that many of you are already using this structure for your preaching and teaching. We met Greg Rawn, publisher of Spirit and Truth Publishing at the 2016 Association of Presbyterian Church Educators conference and realized that curriculum was now being produced based on the Narrative Lectionary. We noticed that others were working to create resources for these readings, and we wanted to be a part of that as well!
So we are happy to announce that beginning August 3, 2016, we will begin posting Lectionary Links for Year 3 of the Narrative Lectionary! The Narrative Lectionary year begins in the fall, and the first Sunday of Year 3 is September 11. The August 3 post will be the Links for September 11, 2016 . The Narrative Lectionary has two passages for each Sunday. One is designated as a preaching text and the other a supplementary text. We will only be providing a link between a book and the preaching text. We are committed to providing these Links for Year 3 and hope we will be able to continue the subsequent years if funding remains available.
This is going to mean we are making a few changes in our posting schedules. Book reviews and bibliographies, normally posted on Tuesdays, will now be posted on Mondays beginning August 1. The Narrative Lectionary links will be posted on Wednesdays and the Revised Common Lectionary links will continue to be posted on Fridays. You may see some slight changes to our site as we implement this new feature, but we hope you’ll still be able to find your way around with ease.
Please spread the word so that those who use the Narrative Lectionary will know they will have another resource to support their work of teaching and preaching!
Changes at Storypath: Narrative Lectionary Links Coming by Storypath is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
I think you are being most forward thinking to adapt this tool to the 4 year lectionary cycle. I have truly enjoyed the materials for the three year cycle (the ones most Episcopalians use) and for heavens sake you have created two cycles worth of materials we can glean from, time and time again. It has always been a passion of mine to regard good childrens literature as a suppliment or illumination to the gospel, that is presented in a way that even the most fossilized of us can understand. (I include myself in the fossil category)
Thanks, Stephanie. We will continue to offer the weekling Links to the Revised Common Lectionary (after all, new books keep coming out!) but we’re excited to see what we can do with this new approach as well. Please share the information so we can get the word out that this will be starting!
Looking forward to this effort. Just added Eye of the Whale to our picture book library. Not sure what passage to match it to, but the power of the whale and human empathy is so strongly portrayed I’m sure I will have no shortage of possibilities. Kind of makes you rethink the Jonah story in terms of the whale’s empathy.
That’s a lovely book. I could certainly see it being used to talk about gratitude or how we are interconnected with God’s creation.
OK, please may I get this straight? I teach Sunday School and count on you for book and commentary for that lectionary — most often the Gospel if my library has the book for that. So that the kids can study what the grown ups are studying in church.
Is that still going to be accessible to me? Is this new thing additional,or instead of?
Thanks for a wonderful resource. I should have thanked you before anyway.
Joan, we will continue the Revised Common Lectionary Links for all three passages. Those will be posted every Friday just like we’ve done for several years. The Narrative Lectionary links are going to be a new feature for those who use this new Lectionary. We’re glad you’ve been helped by Storypath and hope we’ll continue to provide useful resources for you.