Work towards new Lectionary for Aotearoa New Zealand continues

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Good progress is being made towards a new Lectionary for Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia and Ireland � a project that commenced in 2023.

New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference president Bishop Steve Lowe and National Liturgy Office director Msgr Trevor Murray attended a meeting on the Joint Lectionary Project in Ireland last month.

The project commission includes representatives from bishops conferences from Australia and Ireland, as well as Aoteroa New Zealand. National liturgy secretaries from those nations also attended the Maynooth meeting.

During the gathering at St Patrick�s College, Maynooth, the commission reviewed the complete text of the first of four volumes for the new lectionary. The first volume contains the readings for Sundays and Solemnities.

The next stage will be preparation of texts for the two volumes for weekday Masses and the celebration of Saints, followed by the final volume, which includes Masses for the celebration of the sacraments and funerals.

At Maynooth, the commission also considered the publication of the Lectionary and the appointment of a publisher. The bishops expressed their gratitude to all those who have contributed to the process so far.   

Representatives from the three conferences met in Adelaide in 2023, where the decision was made to work together to develop a new Lectionary based on the Revised New Jerusalem Bible. 

The new Lectionary will take advantage of a revised translation of the readings, which is both accessible and faithful to the evolving nuances of the English language and contemporary biblical scholarship.

The texts of the new Lectionary are regularly sent out to the bishops of the three conferences for review and comment. A working group of women and men from the three conferences with expertise in both Scripture and Liturgy meet online each month to consider the submitted comments and revise the text as necessary. 

For more than 50 years, parishes and communities across the island of Ireland, Australia and New Zealand have listened to Scripture readings that are drawn from the same translations given in the current Lectionary for Mass.  Many of these Lectionary books are now in a poor state and in need of replacing. The current Lectionary is based on the 1966 Jerusalem Bible.   

At the Maynooth meeting, the group also launched a book by Fr Neil Xavier O\'Donoghue titled Preparing for the New Lectionary. The publication features the complete text of the General Introduction to the Lectionary, selected papal documents and new essays aimed at assisting parishes and other interested people in preparing for the publication of the new edition.

At the Maynooth meeting were Bishop Steve Lowe, Adelaide Archbishop Patrick O\'Regan and Archbishop Francis Duffy of Tuam, as well as national liturgy secretaries Msgr Trevor Murray (NZ), Fr Anthony Doran (Australia) and Fr Neil Xavier O\'Donoghue (Ireland). Martin Foster, director of the Joint Lectionary Project, also attended.