Lectionary Web Sites

Web study pages on the Lectionary for the Church Year

The Revised Common Lectionary

Days, dates and readings for the Revised Common Lectionary compiled by the Vanderbilt Divinity Library. The Church Year

Web pages for Lectionary Sermons and Bible studies

Richard Fairchild in Canada has assembled an excellent index of lectionary resources, sermons, Bible studies.... His listing is probably the last word on sources. Let Richard know if you would like to list your own site, rjf@rockies.net

Jenee Woodard has created a wonderful source for students, teachers and preachers at her site The Text this Week. This site carries a wide selection of contemporary and historical resources for study & liturgy covering each lectionary week and pericope, including artwork, hymns, study resources, sermons, etc.... Check out: The Text this Week

Some Australian Lectionary sites

Specialized Christian Search Engines

These two search engines list Christian pages and have a small listing of Lectionary sermons.

Searching the Search Engines for Lectionary resources

The main search engines contain the better listings for Lectionary based Bible studies and sermons. The only difficulty lies with those engines whose search system is too wide. Sorting out the Lectionary based sermons and Bible studies from the rest is quite a task.
The engines with an advanced search system that will narrow the search are obviously the best:
i] Boolean phrase search. A search with a set of key words which must be in the page. Search engines use different methods of setting up this string of words. eg. Excite requires the use of three key links in spaced caps, AND, AND NOT, OR.
ii] Exact phrase search. Unless the search engine directs otherwise, the normal method is to use double quotes around a specific phrases to focus the search on pages with that exact phrase, ie. "...... ....... ......." For example in our area of interest - "Lectionary Bible Studies", "Lectionary Sermons", "Lectionary texts", "Liturgical calendar".....
iii] TITLE page search. A search for key words used in the title. eg. Lectionary.
iv] Category Search. This guides the search through site listings by topic and by this means narrows the search, eg Yahoo or Looksmart. The trouble is the categories end up too broad.

The main search engines, their search capacity and listings for Lectionary resources

Meta-search. These engines search the search engines and give a wide, but unedited set of results.
- dogpile.com - Phrase search. Results recorded by search engines.
- metacrawler.com - Phrase search. Sorted results.
  
  Search Tips
  
  any all phrase

Crawlers or Spiders. These engines search the web for their listings, but don't edit them or only have a selection of edited pages. Only those with an advanced search system are useful.
- altavista.com - Boolean or phrase search. Large listing.
- go.com (Infoseek) - TITLE page search or exact phrase search. A very extensive listing.
- hotbot.com - Look for - Boolean string or exact phrase search. A good listing.
- lycos.com - Advanced search - Page Field - TITLE page, or content - exact phrase. A large listing.
- directhit.com - Advanced search - Text location - TITLE page.
- northernlight.com - Boolean or TITLE page. An extensive listing.
- aol.com (Netfind) - Search options. Exact phrase or categories.
- google.com - Phrase search or categories.
- msn.com - More options. Exact phrase.
- dmoz.org - Categories. An open directory.
- excite.com - Advanced Search - Boolean string or phrase search. Good listing.
- netscape.com - Some good listings.
- webcrawler.com - Some interesting listings. Searches out some hidden pages on the Web.

Directories. These consist of edited web pages and so the rubbish has been weeded out. The only problem exists where it is not possible to narrow the search within the categories.
- goto.com - Categories and Boolean search. Select listing.
- yahoo.com - Phrase search or categories. Select listing.
- looksmart.com - Category search. Select listing.
- snap.com / nbci.com (On the way out. Shame!) - Exact phrase search. User friendly, fast, and a nice small listing.

Australian Search Engines
- Yahoo, Excite and Looksmart have an .au directory.
- anzwers.com.au - Exact phrase or TITLE page search. Limited and unordered listing.
- cowleys.com.au - Phrase search, category (Religion), or simple: "Lectionary", "sermons", "Bible studies". Their listings are very small but well ordered.
- webwombat.com.au - Simple word only search, and as they list link pages along with the index page the results are not useful.

Pumpkin Cottage Ministry Resources
Lectionary Bible Studies and Sermons
www.lectionarystudies.com