Sunday, December 4, 2011

New Lectionary to be the English Standard Version


I have just noticed HERE that Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Canberra, chairman of the committee preparing the new lectionary for English speaking Roman Catholics outside the USA, has announced that the new lectionary will be based on the English Standard Version (ESV), a revision of the RSV by conservative evangelical scholars who saw the need for both accuracy and the retention as far as possible of the cadences that are part of our language and culture via the King James Bible and preserved in the RSV. That is fantastic news for all who use the three year cycle of Sunday Readings!

For some time the absence of an ESV version of the Apocrypha precluded its being considered for the lectionary. But that has been remedied. Furthermore, the copyright holders of the ESV are amenable to Catholic needs and the proposed small modifications. The ESV is widely available now in various formats. Often smaller hardback editions can be found remaindered at excellent prices. Of course, you can look at it online.

I wrote an article for New Directions (UK) on the English Standard Version back in 2004. You can read it HERE.

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