Priming the Lectionary: Advent, Christmas and Epiphany (Year A)

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Priming the Lectionary: Advent, Christmas and Epiphany (Year A) is for everyone who longs to engage the lectionary with depth, imagination and care for the world – and who wants to share an inclusive, justice-shaped faith with confidence.

Covering the journey from the First Sunday of Advent through to the end of the Epiphany season (Year A), this book offers a generous spread of resources for each set of readings. It’s designed to save you time, spark your imagination and help you speak of God’s love with courage and tenderness in real, everyday contexts. The material is intentionally flexible, so it can be used in Sunday worship, midweek gatherings, quiet home groups, chaplaincy encounters and one-to-one conversations at any point in the week.

Whether you’re a minister, worship leader, pioneer, preacher, chaplain, lay leader, small-group leader or simply someone who helps hold worship together in your community, Priming the Lectionary gives you starting points you can trust – and adapt.

What you’ll find for each week or festival

For every week or festival in this volume – whether your community gathers on Sundays, midweek or in less formal spaces – you’ll find:

• Prayers – crafted prayers that use inclusive language and hold together hope, lament and everyday life.
• Threads to explore – key themes that connect the readings with real situations in contemporary communities.
• Context and connections – accessible background and links between the readings, written in clear, non-technical language.
• Deepening the Word – short, accessible theological reflections that draw on rich scholarship and lived experience, helping you go deeper without needing an academic library.
• Questions for discussion – simple, open questions you can use in worship, small groups, chaplaincy spaces, café-style gatherings or online conversations.
• Visual and creative ideas – suggestions for symbols, images, installations and creative responses.
• Meditation – guided imaginative reflection that invites people into the story, attentive to those who may be new to faith or on the edges of church.
• Performance piece – short scripts, monologues or spoken-word style pieces to bring the readings alive.
• Practice – a simple spiritual practice for the week, suitable for individuals or communities, helping faith to land in everyday life.
• Digital prompts – ideas for social media posts, projected text or digital engagement that make sense beyond churchy circles.
• Explore – gentle, open questions designed to help you host conversations with people who may be new to faith, curious, or unsure where they fit in church life.

All of this is written with disabled people, queer people, people of colour, people living with poverty and those who have felt marginal to church life firmly in view – not as an add-on, but as part of the heart of the book.

How you can use it

• Plan whole services or a series with a clear, inclusive thread – drawing together prayers, threads, reflections and creative ideas into a coherent flow.
• On weeks when time or energy is short, simply pick up one or two elements (a prayer, a meditation, a discussion question) to enrich what you already have.
• Shape chaplaincy encounters, café-style gatherings, newer forms of church, community events and “church beyond the building”, including informal moments around a kitchen table.
• Use the questions, language and practices to help your community grow in confidence as it talks about faith, justice and inclusion.
• Dip into it as an ideas bank when you’re feeling stuck, using it to spark your own creative approaches.

The tone is warm, grounded and theologically rich without being academic – ideal if you value deep theology but need it in language your whole congregation or group can actually understand.

Priming the Lectionary: Advent, Christmas and Epiphany (Year A) is also the first title in the wider Priming the Lectionary series, and one of the first books published under Holyvity: faith made beautiful. It’s an invitation to imagine and embody worship that is inclusive, justice-shaped and alive to all the places where heaven brushes the earth. You’ll also find additional ideas and companion resources on the author’s website, which will grow alongside the series and offer further ways to put the material into practice.

About the author

Gary Hopkins is a preacher, writer, musician and hymnwriter based in the UK. His hymns, including “Thanks for friends who keep on loving”, are sung in congregations in Britain and beyond. He has worked in a variety of roles supporting local churches and lay leaders, with a particular passion for inclusive worship, chaplaincy and faith in everyday life. Gary’s work weaves together Scripture and lived experience, seeking communities where those often overlooked or marginalised can recognise themselves in the story of God.