Lectionary, Devotional and Reading Plan Feature Requests

[Michael Hunt]

Just thought I would gather here a wishlist of feature requests with regards to lectionary, devotional and reading plans for Accordance.

 

I want to say up front that Accordance has listened to its users in this area and implemented lectionary features (around 11.2) and released lectionary modules (like Feasting on the Word) which is very much appreciated. None of this is what I would call a deal breaker, but I wanted to put into one place what I (and I think other users) might like to see in the future.

 

Lectionary

 

1. An official devotional module for both the Revised Common Lectionary and the Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings. I know the RCL readings are kind of available when one purchases the Feasting on the Word resources but I know of no way to currently get the readings as a stand-alone devotional module. I know there is an RCL tool available in Accordance exchange but not being a devotional module it currently lacks the functionality of a published module.

 

(From http://www.commontexts.org/rcl/permissions/I obtained the following about gaining publishing rights

 

"publishers, and organizations that wish to include the RCL table of citations or excerpts thereof in print or electronic resources, including Web-based and any other form of delivery, must obtain written permission from the Consultation on Common Texts through its copyright administrator, Augsburg Fortress.")

 

Moudule request URL's for RCL & RCL Daily

 

https://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/17563/The-Revised-Common-Lectionary-20th-Anniversary-Annotated-Edition

https://www.augsburgfortress.org/store/product/7060/Revised-Common-Lectionary-Daily-Readings

 

2. For clergy, lectionary resources are often consulted with the upcoming readings in mind (i.e. today as a pastor I would be wanting to look ahead at the First Sunday of Advent readings). Laity may prefer to reflect back on the previous Sunday readings in between lections (I.e today they may want to be looking back at the readings for Christ the King). Currently, I have two wishes in this area:

 

a. For consistency across resources. Opening up the Ancient Christian Devotional (a unique resource I see as a blend of devotional and lectionary) pulls up the previous Sunday readings (i.e. Christ the King) while opening up other lectionary resources takes me forward to the upcoming lection (i.e. First Sunday in Advent). One way forward might be to introduce a toggle option in the preferences pane for either current or upcoming readings.

 

(Note: RCL Daily actually makes the break between reflection and preparation occur on a Thursday so that Thursday, Friday and Saturday are readings that prepare for the upcoming Sunday and Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday readings reflect on what was read on Sunday.  See pages 3 & 4 in this PDF http://www.commontexts.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/RCLDailyReadingsOverview.pdf)

 

b. For consistent functionality across platforms. In a rare case of Accordance on iOS having more functionality than Mac I can easily switch between different lectionary/devotional resources in devotional mode and be directed to the right portion for today's date.

 

3. Would love for the Book of Common Prayer to have a separate module for the Daily Office. (Looks like I may have just turned up a bug with it going to year A - First Sunday of Advent on Mac and iOS. iOS also garbles the readings cutting off the title and dropping two of the readings). Currently just gives the lectionary readings only.

 

4. Not sure that this is even possible but would love to see CofE Common Worship resources made available in Accordance. In fact, any older editions of the prayer book would be excellent to have.

 

Devotional

 

1. Would love the same kind of functionality to be added to Mac as what is in iOS. e.g. I have finished reading a devotional resource like my recently purchased "Celebrating Abundance" and then easily want to pop over and read today's portion of Greek Word for the Day. 

 

2. The ordering of the Default Devotional preference to be either

 

a. Consistent with the order in my library (prefered)

b. Alphabetical

 

3. More control over and/or custom programming of a daily/devotional workspace

 

Reading Plan

 

1. Creation of custom reading plans

 

2. Like the above the ability to flip between dates in plans installed in our library in the same way we might say between commentaries using ^1, ^2 etc. 

Edited November 29, 2018 by Michael Hunt

[Donald Cobb]

3. More control over and/or custom programming of a daily/devotional workspace

 

Reading Plan

 

1. Creation of custom reading plans

 

 

+ 1

 

(as well as the others too, but this is something I've been wanting!)

 

DC

[Graham Buck]

I can't answer any of the other points, but as for (Lectionary)(3), there will be coming shortly a free update/grade to the Book of Common Prayer (1979) module which will offer a two devotional resources for the Daily Office, Daily Office Readings (Year 1) and Daily Office Readings (Year 2). In order to make them work with our current system there are three copies of the data, years A, B, and C, respectively so that no matter what liturgical year it is you can find yourself at the appropriate location.

[Rick Bennett]

Thanks for the feedback, Michael; this is great.

 

A couple points to comment on:

 

We intentionally sync to the Sunday ahead in liturgical resources. Ancient Christian Devotional was one of the first ones we released, so needs to be corrected.

 

We are releasing a free update to BCP 1979 that splits the Daily Office readings into separate modules that sync with the Daily Reading feature. We meant to do this sooner, but it got sidetracked. Look for an update in the coming days.

 

We will request the two RCL resources from Fortress, but cannot comment on when they might be released.

 

Thanks again for the feedback.

[Michael Hunt]

Thanks Graham and Rick for your replies. Really appreciate Accordance's work in this area. Understand that as the first lectionary module (and it being lectionary like) the Ancient Christian Devotional might through a few programming curve balls.

[Michael Hunt]

That should be "throw"

[billwing]

I would really appreciate the ability to create custom reading plans with the ease of Logos's tool. There, I simply put in the books of the Bible that I want to read, the Bible translation I want, and a date range. A daily reading list is then automatically generated. I can do my readings in the morning from my mobile app. I would prefer to use Accordance, though, because the app is more readable, and faster. Thank you.

[Michael Hunt]

Maybe Saturday the upcoming sneak peak at Accordance 13 feature might highlight some changes in this area ????

[Carol K]

 

 

Reading Plan

 

1. Creation of custom reading plans

 

 

I would like to add my vote to the ability to create one's own custom reading plan. I just started a plan reading through the GNT in 1 year. Someone else in the group doing this plan was able to create a reading plan in Logos. I had hoped this would also be possible in Accordance. Alas, it seems like this is not possible.