Consultation on Common Texts offers provisional update to the RCL addressing anti-Judaism in Holy Week

The Consultation on Common Texts (CCT) concluded its annual meeting at the denominational offices of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 8. The Consultation is a joint American and Canadian ecumenical body that is responsible for the Revised Common Lectionary, a schedule of biblical passages read on Sundays and major feasts in congregations of multiple denominations in North America and other parts of the world. Denominations and church bodies represented at the recent meeting included the Anglican Church of Canada, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, the Mennonite Church Canada, the North American Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church in Canada, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), The Episcopal Church, The United Methodist Church, the United Church of Canada, and the United Church of Christ, along with representatives from Augsburg Fortress Press and the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.

Nine members attended in person, with others participating by video conference. The Rev. Dr. Robert W. Prichard represented the Episcopal Church at this meeting. Bob has participated in the CCT since 2017 and is the current chair of the body.

At this meeting the CCT approved a provisional update to the Revised Common Lectionary, reconsidering passages of Scripture that have historically been used to justify discrimination and violence against Jews. This work comes as a response to a 2012 petition about the readings for Holy Week and has involved extensive study and consultation with religious leaders, including Jewish scholars. The CCT now proposes alternate readings for Palm/Passion Sunday and Good Friday, along with revisions to the lectionary for the season of Easter and the time after Pentecost. The update is now commended to the churches for a three-year trial period, beginning in Advent of 2025. Feedback on the proposed update may be offered at the CCT website, commontexts.org.  The full text and the response form can be found at The Consultation on Common Texts.

The CCT also voted to commend the work of a committee established to provide lectionary readings for a feast celebrating God’s work in creation. This initiative is rooted in a global and ecumenical movement of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant religious leaders, launched in Assisi in March of 2024. The next gathering will take place at Assisi in May of 2025, and the CCT will be represented by two members, one from Canada and one from the U.S.

The idea of such a festival, proposed by the Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios in 1989, has gained support in recent years from western churches.  An ecumenical seminar held in Assisi earlier this year endorsed the idea of adding such a feast to the Church calendar, but inclusion of the festival will be dependent on the actions of individual denominations.

Other significant actions at the 2025 meeting of the CCT included:

• the formation of a committee to address distinctions between biblical Israel and modern state of Israel, particularly with regard to the Psalter;
• the celebration of the publication of The Revised Common Lectionary: Expanded Daily Readings (Augsburg Fortress, 2024) and a discussion of strategies for making it more widely available;
• the approval of changes to the constitution of the English Language Liturgical Consultation (ELLC), the global ecumenical body of which CCT is a part. The Rev. Dr. William H. Petersen, who is an Episcopalian and an at-large member, is one of the two U.S. representative from the CCT to that body.
• the election of Alydia Smith (United Church of Canada) as CCT secretary and the re-election of CCT chair Robert Prichard (The Episcopal Church) and U.S. Treasurer David Gambrell (Presbyterian Church U.S.A.).

The CCT meets annually. Next year’s meeting will take place in Decatur, Georgia, on April 20th and 21st at the offices of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.