Software demo

The Calendar and Lectionary

This demonstration is taken from Visual Liturgy 4.0 for Common Worship. Since its inception, one of the major benefits of using Visual Liturgy has always been its link-up to the Common Worship lectionary.

The Calendar

The Calendar has been made much bigger than previously and information is now presented within the calendar grid itself rather than in a separate box. Calendar events are font and colour coded to match the Annual Lectionary publications - a system that provides an easy reference as to whether a particular event is a Principal Feast, a Festival, a Lesser Festival or Commemoration.

Users can open events to find out the readings and other lectionary-based information such as the Collect or Post Communion. The notes section has also been expanded to provide more information and guidance on how each event is best used.

One of the biggest changes for the Calendar, however, is the new addition of a function that enables users to view saved services from the Calendar and to create Diary items. Services that are saved with a time and location appear in the Services planner but will also show up in the Calendar, for users who prefer to work in that view. Diary items allow users to add freehand notes to individual dates to serve as useful reminders.

The Lectionary planner

The Lectionary planner enables users to interrogate the lectionary by specifying a date range, requesting that the lectionary display only certain days (for example, Sundays, Principal Feasts etc.) and requesting only certain types of content item (for example, readings, Collect, Post Communion etc.). The resulting report can then be printed out to serve as a reminder of what is coming up… and perhaps given to Readers or others in the church who might need such information ahead of time.

The initial settings are made in a dialogue box that has two tabs - one for options relating to the date and the second for options relating to the content items.

Once users are happy with their choices, they then move into the report tool which is divided into two panes. Users can click on each date and instantly see the results.

Events use the same font and colour coding as the Calendar, while the content items have icons to indicate the kind of content in each case. If required, users can still print out the report in a long-hand format to take away.

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