Many Visual Liturgy users will be aware of this 2004 volume by John H. Darch and Stuart K. Burns which contains version of the text that VL users could import as a “Help file” which displayed the relevant biography for all the saints’ days in the Calendar. A revised version of the text – reflecting the changes and additions to the Calendar approved in 2010 – is now available in a more flexible format to all Visual Liturgy users with an active subscription. This is available, as normal, by running the Online update within VL Live.

Once installed, the update can be used in several ways. The most obvious is that when you run Visual Liturgy, if it is a Saint’s Day, the name of the saint appears as a hyperlink on the Welcome screen.

Click the hyperlink to open the biography for that saint:

You can also find a full index to the biographies in the Visual Liturgy Help menu (note that VL must be restarted after the update before this will appear).

The biographies are also stored as texts in Visual Liturgy. You can find them under the Saints on Earth category in the list of service templates, presented month by month. This format is more convenient if you want to copy and paste or insert a biography into a service.

Finally, if you use the VL Agent, you will find a new SOE tab that shows the current biography when available.

With the addition of the Times and Seasons: President’s Edition for Holy Communion in November and an extension of the Calendar information earlier in January, now is definitely the time to run Online update if you have not done so for a while. Under the Help menu, select Online update and install the recommended software update and expanded Times and Seasons content module.

28 Feb: Going deeper (advanced) course

6 March: Get started (basic) course

27 June: Get started (basic) course

20 Sep: Going deeper (advanced) course

13 Nov: Get started (basic) course

More information is at www.churchcommstraining.org

When we prepared this calendar update we noticed and corrected a problem which has existed in Visual Liturgy for many years. In the book Calendar, Lectionary and Collects, most events have readings for the Principal Service, Second Service and Third Service. However, Holy Days have readings for the Principal Service, Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer. This was originally entered in Visual Liturgy so that Morning Prayer maps to the Second Service and Evening Prayer to the Third Service. This is incorrect, and the Second Service should map to Evening Prayer, Third Service to Morning Prayer.

There is no problem with using Third Service readings for Evening Prayer or vice versa; it is a free and valid choice. However, this did cause problems for the Daily Prayer lectionary on Holy Days and Eves, especially on Eves where there is no Third Service provision. We have now corrected this. This will not affect you, unless you have custom service templates which assume the incorrect entries in Visual Liturgy’s calendar. If this is the case, you just need to amend them so that Evening Prayer uses the Second Service readings.

To get the update, go to Online Update on the Edit menu in the top bar in Visual Liturgy. When the online update window appears, check this update (and any others you need) and click OK to continue.

Second, we have updated the calendar for Methodist and Church of Ireland users for 2012. If you use one of these lectionaries, update your Visual Liturgy using online update.

We are currently working on Holy Week and Easter resources so look out for news on that soon.

In addition, the following updates are now also available for all Visual Liturgy Live users to download:

• An update to Christian Initiation, correcting various errata and adding Rites on the Way and Reconciliation of a Penitent
• A Lectionary update including corrections to 2012 and authorized amendments.

These updates are available via the Online Update feature in Visual Liturgy Live.

You can renew your subscription at any time online at www.visualliturgylive.net.

http://www.vislit.com/blog/?page_id=225

This is in addition to the VL training day on 21st September.

Delving deeper with Visual Liturgy
21 September 2011 or 2nd November 2011 10am-5pm
Church House, London SW1P 3AZ
£80 per person

Have you started using Visual Liturgy Live but want to be able to use its advanced features? Spend a day learning how to develop further your skills in Visual Liturgy Live in our IT training suite.

Who is the course for?

• Anyone who has had some experience with Visual Liturgy Live and who wants to get more out of this powerful programme. This course can be seen as a follow up to the course “Getting to grips with Visual Liturgy Live”

What will you learn?

• Beneath the bonnet of Templates – how they can be customised
• Using the Lectionary Planner to plan readings for services ahead of time and create sermon series around particular themes
• The fine details of searching with the browser and accessing hymn and song suggestions
• Working with styles and properties within Templates- accessing the advanced features of these tools

How to book

Please email comms.training@churchofengland.org with the name of the course you would like to book on and your contact details. You will receive an invoice for the course fee in due course.

We have also fixed a problem in Morning Prayer on Sunday (Ordinary Time).

To get this update, use Online Update, on the Edit menu in the top bar, and tick the content update.

In case you are wondering, there are also several more substantial additions to Visual Liturgy which are under way, so look out for more news soon!

Delving deeper with Visual Liturgy
21 September 2011 10am-5pm
Church House, London SW1P 3AZ
£80 per person

Have you started using Visual Liturgy Live but want to be able to use its advanced features? Spend a day learning how to develop further your skills in Visual Liturgy Live in our IT training suite.

Who is the course for?

• Anyone who has had some experience with Visual Liturgy Live and who wants to get more out of this powerful programme. This course can be seen as a follow up to the course “Getting to grips with Visual Liturgy Live”

What will you learn?

• Beneath the bonnet of Templates – how they can be customised
• Using the Lectionary Planner to plan readings for services ahead of time and create sermon series around particular themes
• The fine details of searching with the browser and accessing hymn and song suggestions
• Working with styles and properties within Templates- accessing the advanced features of these tools

How to book

Please email comms.training@churchofengland.org with the name of the course you would like to book on and your contact details. You will receive an invoice for the course fee in due course.