Just after I was ordained, my old RE teacher at school, Dr Caswall, took the trouble to write to me.
He was a very committed Christian and there was a piece of advice he wanted to give. He advised me to preach through every book in the Bible.
I did not entirely succeed. Even though we have studied books from Leviticus to Revelation. I’ve never got round to the Song of Solomon. But if I were here for another 10 years, I might still not
get round to that particular book.
In spite of our long history of preaching through a large number of sermon series, we will be following the lectionary readings for the rest of this term, and into the future.
They are a series of readings designed by central church to take a congregation through the Bible in three years. Those who compiled them are very knowledgeable about the Scriptures and this comes through.
The main advantage for us is that all clergy and readers know what the readings are for the coming Sunday. That means that if we invite someone to preach, it makes it much easier to get cover.
The biggest change is this. You are not really going to know what the sermon is going to be about until you read its title in the bulletin on the Friday before.