The web for The Center for Biblical Studies site has a page for daily devotions to follow along in your reading the Bible day by day. Click on daily meditations to be directed to these meditations written by fellow Episcopalians. The meditations include questions for pondering as well as a daily prayer.
If you would like to vary your reading of the New Testament and not read all four gospels one after another, I suggest reading Romans after finishing Matthew. After Romans start Mark, followed by I and II Corinthians, then Luke, followed by Acts, the second volume of Luke. Meditations on the Center's web site (above) will however follow a straight reading through the New Testament. Enjoy. -- Joseph Pace
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Bible Literacy
From Bishop Rowthorne, former Suffragan Bishop of CT and Bishop of the Convocation of American Churches in Europe, Retired:
What you are doing is rooted in the very beginnings of Anglicanism. Thomas Cranmer - moved by his passion for grounding the spiritual life of the English people in the Scriptures - appointed one chapter of the Bible to be read in church at Morning Prayer and one at Evening Prayer. These were whole chapters (no verses excluded) and were read in unbroken sequence.
Thus today - January 16 - the service in church included Genesis 28 and Matthew 14 (MP) and Genesis 29 and Romans 14 (EP). Tomorrow the readings would have been Genesis 30 and Matthew 15 (MP) and Genesis 31 and Romans 15 (EP). In this way over the course of a year almost the whole of the Old Testament was read through once and the New Testment three times. Even though people were largely illiterate they were made familiar with the Bible in a way that our lectionaries do not provide for so amply. And, sadly, our literate church members, unlike our Anglican forebears, are largely illiterate when it comes to what lies between the covers of the Bible.
So congratulations and great gratitude for what you are doing in the name of our Lord and for the health and well-being and effective witness of his Church!
What you are doing is rooted in the very beginnings of Anglicanism. Thomas Cranmer - moved by his passion for grounding the spiritual life of the English people in the Scriptures - appointed one chapter of the Bible to be read in church at Morning Prayer and one at Evening Prayer. These were whole chapters (no verses excluded) and were read in unbroken sequence.
Thus today - January 16 - the service in church included Genesis 28 and Matthew 14 (MP) and Genesis 29 and Romans 14 (EP). Tomorrow the readings would have been Genesis 30 and Matthew 15 (MP) and Genesis 31 and Romans 15 (EP). In this way over the course of a year almost the whole of the Old Testament was read through once and the New Testment three times. Even though people were largely illiterate they were made familiar with the Bible in a way that our lectionaries do not provide for so amply. And, sadly, our literate church members, unlike our Anglican forebears, are largely illiterate when it comes to what lies between the covers of the Bible.
So congratulations and great gratitude for what you are doing in the name of our Lord and for the health and well-being and effective witness of his Church!
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