Christian lectionaries are structured schedules of Scripture readings appointed for public worship. They grew out of the church’s ancient practice of assigning readings to particular days and seasons so congregations would hear the sweep of Scripture together rather than relying only on whatever a preacher chose that week. In the modern era the form most people meet in churches, especially in liturgical traditions, owes a great deal to the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Ordo Lectionum Missae (1969), which introduced a multi-year cycle and substantially increased the amount of Scripture proclaimed in public worship. Protestant ecumenical work in the 1970s–1990s adapted and revised that pattern and produced the Common Lectionary and, after trial use and revision, the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) published in 1992. The RCL deliberately balanced Gospel cycles with more regular Old Testament and epistolary readings and has become the de-facto shared Sunday lectionary for many U.S. denominations.
Form and logic. The familiar three-year Sunday lectionary (Years A, B, C) organizes Gospel readings by year (A = Matthew, B = Mark, C = Luke, with John and Johannine material used across seasons such as Easter and certain holy days). A typical Sunday set in liturgical churches provides an Old Testament reading (or Acts in Eastertide), a Psalm (or portion of it), an Epistle or other New Testament reading, and a Gospel pericope; the aim is to give congregations exposure to different biblical writers in sequence rather than preaching entirely by theme. In some communions there is also an integrated daily lectionary (used in monasteries, clergy prayer offices, or by laity) that fills in much more Scripture over time.
Who in America uses what. In the United States the RCL is widely used, often as an official or strongly encouraged option, by many mainline and liturgical Protestant bodies and has been adapted into local use by numerous churches: Episcopal/Anglican bodies, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Presbyterian Church (USA), United Methodist Church, Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ, many American Baptist congregations, Moravian churches, and others. The Roman Catholic Church uses its own 3-year Lectionary for Mass (derived from the same mid-20th-century liturgical renewal) and many Anglicans/Church of England provinces use the RCL or closely related material; the Orthodox churches follow a distinct Byzantine lectionary that is tied to their liturgical cycle and follows different patterns of texts and saints’ days. At the other end of the spectrum, many evangelical and non-liturgical congregations do not follow a formal ecumenical lectionary at all, preferring topical series or book-by-book preaching plans. (Lists of denominations that have adopted or commonly use the RCL are compiled by liturgical organizations and in denominational resources.)
How much of the Bible gets heard (and why figures differ). One of the most frequently asked empirical questions is “what fraction of the Bible do lectionaries actually cover?” Answers vary because different counts use different assumptions (Sunday readings only versus Sunday+daily; whether Psalms or the deuterocanonical books are counted; whether partial verses and short pericopes are treated as full coverage). That said, careful tallies done by liturgical scholars and practitioners give a consistent picture:
Because the RCL was deliberately designed to allow more Old Testament and wisdom readings than some earlier Protestant lectionaries, congregations using the RCL plus optional “semi-continuous” or daily OT schemes will encounter a broader sampling of Hebrew Scripture than congregations that only use the RCL’s principal Sunday picks without augmentation. The practical takeaway for a parish organizer or a website audience is that a lectionary’s nominal “coverage” depends heavily on which variant (Sunday only, daily, semi-continuous OT option) is counted.
Major published criticisms (and common responses). As lectionaries spread across denominational lines, a steady body of critique emerged from various theological angles. Criticisms fall into several recurring themes:
Those broad criticisms have generated practical remedies that many congregations already use: choose a semi-continuous plan for epistles or Old Testament sections, employ occasional multi-week preaching series that go through whole books, use the daily office or midweek lectionary to supplement Sunday selections, and encourage small groups and adult education to follow a book-by-book reading plan in parallel with Sunday worship. Another option congregations use is intentional deviation: using the RCL most weeks but setting several Sundays aside each year to preach through an entire biblical book in sequence.
Scholarly and pastoral conversations. Liturgical scholars and pastors continue to debate the lectionary’s theological and pastoral effects. Some scholars emphasize the lectionary’s gift: it imposes a corporate rhythm that keeps the church’s attention on the seasons of salvation history and forces preachers to address texts they might otherwise avoid. Others emphasize the pedagogical deficits and the need for parishes to be intentional about filling in gaps. Publications from WorkingPreacher, denominational liturgy offices, and independent commentators provide a steady stream of commentary, case studies, and alternative proposals; these conversations are the best places to follow innovations (for instance, adaptations that increase Old Testament continuity or that reconfigure psalmody).
Practical summary for a website reader or small church leader. If your purpose is to help readers decide how to handle Scripture reading in worship, the practical points are straightforward: the RCL and the Catholic Lectionary provide a broadly ecumenical, seasonally attuned, three-year curriculum that significantly increases the Scripture publicly read in worship compared with many older single-year schemes, but the precise amount of the Bible “heard” depends on whether a congregation uses only Sunday readings or also follows weekday/semi-continuous options. Critics rightly call attention to lost contexts and selective omissions; those defects are often remedied by intentional pairing of lectionary Sundays with book-focused preaching, midweek adult education, and alternative lectionaries (such as the Narrative Lectionary) for communities that want a contiguous biblical story.