Adapted from a Consultation on Common Texts press release
The Consultation on Common Texts (CCT) has received a draft statement about passages in John and Acts of the Apostles that have been used to justify discrimination and violence against Jews. A further draft of that statement is expected in August and will be circulated to member denominations for comment.
The CCT held this year’s meeting at St. Andrew’s United Church, Bloor Street, in Toronto. The Consultation is a joint American and Canadian ecumenical body that is responsible for the Revised Common Lectionary.
The CCT also established a committee to consider lessons for a feast celebrating God’s work in creation. 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 depend on the actions of individual denominations.
CCT members learned that a recent project, Revised Common Lectionary: Expanded Daily Readings, is scheduled for publication this summer; it increases the number of daily lessons to include a psalm and three other biblical readings, matching the Sunday pattern.
Two priests represented the Episcopal Church at the meeting: the Rev. Dr. William Petersen (member at large and a CCT representative to the English Language Liturgical Consultation) and the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Prichard (Episcopal representative and current chair of the body).