Almanac: the Calendar and Lectionary for Common Worship
Almanac is a complete calendar and lectionary according to the calendar of the Church of England for both Common Worship and the Book of Common Prayer.
Select from the tabs above to or to it to your calendar on phone, tablet or computer.
Donations
Almanac is offered free of any charge, and without warranty. As you can imagine it takes some effort to compile. If you would like to make a contribution to my costs then donations may be made via PayPal or Amazon.
Donations
Donate by PayPal
Browse to paypal.me/SimonKershaw, enter the amount and click or tap the “Next” button. Do select “Sending to a friend or family”: if you select “Paying for an item or service” PayPal will deduct a fee.
Or you can log in to your Paypal account, and select “pay or send money” and then “Sending to a friend or family”; enter the email address simon@kershaw.org.uk, and specify your donation. PayPal does not charge a fee for this transaction; if you select “Paying for an item or service” they will.
Donate by Amazon voucher
Amazon.co.uk gift vouchers can be purchased online at Amazon.co.uk in various denominations and delivered by email to simon@kershaw.org.uk .
Please do use amazon.co.uk and not amazon.com or another Amazon site to buy vouchers. amazon.com vouchers can only be redeemed or spent at the US amazon.com (and similarly for other countries).
Thank you: your donation is much appreciated.
Keeping in Touch
Keep informed of future releases, or any important corrections or changes, by joining the email announcement list.
Keeping in Touch
Fill in your name and email address and press Subscribe.
Your name and email address will be kept at oremus.org and used to contact you with news of Almanac updates. By pressing the Subscribe button you agree to your data being kept for this purpose. Your details are not used for other purposes and not disclosed to others.
New!
2020–21 Almanac now available.
Other news: On touchscreens in
the Almanac View tab, swipe to the left to move
to the next day or to the right for the previous day. On small screens, tap the
calendar menu icon 
to display the
month and the principal feasts in the year: swipe across these to change month or
year. In the Bible tab, swiping will take you to the following or previous
passage. The view tab displays sun and moon times: tap on Set location to
customize the times for your location.
Disclaimer
Almanac is intended to comply fully with the Calendar and Rules to Order the Service of the Church of England, according to Common Worship and the Book of Common Prayer. No other Calendars are used or merged with the data.
Almanac is made available free of charge. Furthermore I disclaim all responsibility for any consequences of any errors in the files. My liability is limited to making available an updated version of the archive as and when I am able to do so. Please help by pointing out any errors.
Contents
- Download: Add Almanac to your own Calendar
- View: Today’s lectionary readings, daily prayer, collects, notes from Exciting Holiness, Common of Saints, Harvest, sun and moon data and more
- Bible: the oremus Bible Browser
- Resources: links to Common Worship texts, hymn suggestions, commentaries, and more
- Help: how to download Almanac to your own calendar; how to run Almanac as a web app on a tablet or smartphone; copyright, cookie information and acknowledgments
Simon Kershaw
8 September 2000
last updated: 17 September 2020
go to Today
Other Occasions
Harvest Thanksgiving
Common of the Saints
Setting your location
Almanac shows the times of sunrise, sunset and other astronomical events. The precise times of these vary according to your location, and you can enter your postcode, or – if known – your latitude and longitude, to customize the data. Latitude and longitude may be entered as decimal numbers: positive is east of Greenwich or north of the equator, negative is west of Greenwich or south of the equator. This location information is stored in cookies.The default location is near the centre of England.
oremus
bible browser
biblemail@oremus.org
v 3.0 almanac 1.0 0
30 Jan 2020
About oremus Bible Browser
oremus Bible Browser v3.0
29 April 2019
oremus Bible Browser is copyright © 1998–2019 Simon Kershaw <biblemail@oremus.org>. All rights reserved.
Some of the texts included in the oremus Bible Browser are copyright © the individual copyright holders, and are used by permission.
Donations
The oremus Bible Browser is, and always has been, offered free of any charge. If you would like to make a contribution to costs then donations may be made via PayPal or Amazon to simon@kershaw.org.uk. To use PayPal, simply browse to paypal.me/SimonKershaw, enter the amount and click or tap the “Next” button. Do select “Sending to a friend or family”: if you select “Paying for an item or service” PayPal will deduct a fee.
Or you can log in to your Paypal account, and select “pay or send money” and then “Sending to a friend or family”; enter the email address simon@kershaw.org.uk, and specify your donation. PayPal does not charge a fee for this transaction; if you select “Paying for an item or service” they will.
Alternatively, Amazon gift vouchers are a convenient method and can be purchased online at Amazon and delivered by email to simon@kershaw.org.uk . Please do use amazon.co.uk and not amazon.com or another Amazon site to buy vouchers. amazon.com vouchers can only be redeemed or spent at the US amazon.com (and similarly for other countries).
Donations
The oremus Bible Browser is, and always has been, offered free of any charge. If you would like to make a contribution to costs then donations may be made via PayPal or Amazon to simon@kershaw.org.uk.
Donate by PayPal
Browse to paypal.me/SimonKershaw, enter the amount and click or tap the “Next” button. Do select “Sending to a friend or family”: if you select “Paying for an item or service” PayPal will deduct a fee.
Or you can log in to your Paypal account, and select “pay or send money” and then “Sending to a friend or family”; enter the email address simon@kershaw.org.uk, and specify your donation. PayPal does not charge a fee for this transaction; if you select “Paying for an item or service” they will.
Donate by Amazon voucher
Amazon.co.uk gift vouchers can be purchased online at Amazon.co.uk in various denominations and delivered by email to simon@kershaw.org.uk .
Please do use amazon.co.uk and not amazon.com or another Amazon site to buy vouchers. amazon.com vouchers can only be redeemed or spent at the US amazon.com (and similarly for other countries).
Thank you: your donation is much appreciated.
oremus Bible Browser Help
Looking up a bible reference
The oremus Bible Browser is a simple, friendly way of accessing bible texts. Just enter a reference to a bible passage in the box and press ‘return’, and the passage will be displayed. Optionally, you can tap the search icon (🔍) rather than using the ‘return’ key.
As you use the oremus Bible Browser, it remembers the passages and searches you have entered, displaying the first few lines of each as a ‘visual history’ at the bottom of the page. This grows to become a horizontal scrolling list, and tapping on an item restores it to the main panel. These items are stored in the browser page, and you do not need to be on-line to restore them.
Searching for words and phrases
You can also enter other words or short phrases to search for the text anywhere in the bible. You can force a search rather than a reference by prefixing it with the word ‘search:’ – this is useful if you want to search for a word that is also the name of a biblical book, such as ‘revelation’ or ‘Ezekiel’ or words such as ‘Paul’ or ‘letter’ which are otherwise ignored.
Search results appear in a separate, scrollable, panel, and you can tap on a verse to display the verse and its surrounding context in the main panel.
Retrieving multiple passages
Tapping on the down arrow (▼) enlarges the text entry panel allowing you to enter multiple bible references, one per line. You can then tap the search icon (🔍) to retrieve the passages.
Selecting a bible version
The menu system (accessed via the menu icon at the top left of the page) allows you to select a different bible version. The oBB currently supports the New Revised Standard Version in both American and British spelling editions, together with the Authorized Version of 1611, also called the King James Version. In addition there are three further versions of the psalms: the psalters from Common Worship (the Church of England’s 2000 prayer book), the Alternative Service Book 1980, and from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. The oBB remembers the version selected until it is changed again.
Display options
The menu also lets you choose whether to display verse numbers (including chapter numbers), footnotes and footnote markers, section headings (which are provided by some translations as an aid to the reader), and also the passage reference and links to adjacent passages. You can toggle the display of all these on and off independently, and the oBB remembers your settings.
Text size
The size of the type used to display bible passages can be increased and decreased using the two buttons (T▲ and T▼).
Dark mode
Setting dark mode changes the colour scheme, so the background colour is dark – nearly black – and the text is pale. This is useful when reading from the oremus Bible Browser in a dark setting, for example at a nighttime service in a church or elsewhere.
Search options
By default, searching for text scans the entire bible. You can limit you search to a range of books by selecting them in the ‘search options’ panel.
Quicklinks
Tapping the star icon (★) will generate a short link to a passage, multiple passages, or a word search. This link is stored by the oBB server, and can be shared with others.
Browser support
Version 3 of the oremus Bible Browser works with the latest versions of popular browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Edge on desktop and laptop computers and also on tablets and phones. Internet Explorer is not supported.
To make full use of the oBB you must use secure https, rather than the old http. Some functionality will not work without https, including remembering your settings.
Cookies
The oBB stores some data in cookies, including the settings options and the most recent bible reference (or references). Although your web browser automatically sends oBB cookies to the oBB server, the server does not use them at all. It is only used by the web browser to remember your options and to reapply them each time you visit the oBB page.
Simon Kershaw
22 June 2019
Almanac Resources
Common Worship texts
The Common Worship texts can be found on the Church of England website:
- Times and Seasons
- Festivals
- Lectionaries
- Rules to Order the Calendar
- Texts of Common Worship and BCP services
Suggested hymns for use with the Revised Common Lectionary
Although the oremus Hymnal was closed in 2017, compiler Steve Benner’s hymn suggestions for use with the Revised Common Lectionary, which forms the basis of the Common Worship Principal Service Lectionary, are still available.
These pages link the first lines to HymnQuest: click on one to find that hymn at HymnQuest. All users have access to public-domain texts at HymnQuest; HymnQuest subscribers have access to in-copyright texts as well. Better integration of the hymn suggestions into Almanac is planned.
Almanac has no connection with HymnQuest beyond being a user of an excellent resource.
Introduction to Lectionaries
When first introduced, several of the lectionaries were accompanied by a commentary or introduction, explaining the rationale behind the choices made.
- Common Worship Sunday and Festival Lectionary for Principal, Second and Third Services. This was published with the interim edition of the Lectionary in 1997.
- Daily Eucharistic Lectionary. This introduction appeared in the Common Worship: Daily Eucharistic Lectionary volume, published by Canterbury Press Norwich in 2008.
- Additional Weekday Lectionary, published with the Lectionary in 2010.
The Date of Easter
The Easter date calculator displays the date of Easter in any specified year, together with the dates of Easter-related observances, and the names and the ‘proper’ numbers of the Sundays in ‘ordinary time’. This can be used to generate a basic calendar for any year in which the full Almanac is not available, or just to see a calendar for an historical or future year. There is an option to use the Julian Calendar instead of the Gregorian Calendar, and by default the calculator automatically switches in September 1752.
The Almanac for today
: collect(s) and readings (with text from the NRSV and the Common Worship psalter) together with biographical and historical notes from Exciting Holiness, and ready-to-use Morning and Evening Prayer (CW and BCP), Prayer During the Day (CW), and Night Prayer (CW and traditional language). There are also links to previous and succeeding days and to other dates.
oremus Bible Browser
As an experiment, the is now integrated with the Almanac, and can be viewed in the Bible tab. It provides easy access to the complete text of the bible, including the Apocrypha which is used by the lectionary, following the NRSV (Anglicized Edition) and the Authorized or King James Version, together with the psalters from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and Common Worship, as well as the ASB 1980.
It continues to be available separately at bible.oremus.org, or try the new Browser, version 3, currently in beta test.
Earlier years
For calendar data for earlier years, from 2005–6 back to 2002–3, see the Palm almanac archive page.
Other oremus resources
The main oremus page provides access to other liturgical resources including oremus Daily Prayer, and An Anglican Liturgical Library, which contains earlier Church of England material, as well as links to liturgical texts from other parts of the Anglican Communion.
Sunrise and Sunset
Crosscal will calculate the times of sunrise and sunset for your UK location for a whole year, ready to import to your calendar. Crosscal data is now also incorporated into the View tab, and can be customized by following the Set location link in the calendar menu panel on that tab. Here you can enter a (UK )postcode, which will be looked up to find the corresponding latitude and longitude. Alternatively, you can enter your latitude and longitude directly.
Downloading the Almanac to your Calendar
This section provides help on how to download a copy of the Almanac and load it into the calendar on your computer, phone or tablet. Click on the appropriate link to show the information about using the Almanac with that calendar.
From 2015–16, the preferred Outlook download is this iCalendar file. Save the file to your disc and then import into Outlook using File -> Open and Export -> Open Calendar.
This calendar file contains formatted text and links to all the bible readings using an Outlook extension to iCalendar. For earlier years, where the Outlook iCalendar download is not available, use the Outlook csv download.
You may find that the CW data is imported into a new Calendar rather than your normal one. After you have checked that the data is what you are expecting you can move it another Calendar as follows:
- Go to Calendar View.
- In the left hand panel select only the calendar that contains the CW items, hiding your normal calendar.
- In Outlook 2013 and 2010 from the Views tab select Change View (leftmost item) and select the List option. (In Outlook 2007 click on View > Current View > All Appointments.)
- Click on one of the CW items and then type ctl-A to select them all.
- Right click and select Move > Calendar (assuming you default calendar is called Calendar).
You can now reselect Calendar View, see Step 3 above.
This is a csv file which can be imported into Microsoft Outlook, as well as into other applications such as a spreadsheet. Save the file to your disc and then import into Outlook using File -> Open -> Import to start the Import and Export Wizard.
This file will also import into Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2003. There appear to be some formatting issues caused by Outlook auto-formatting the imported text, but this does not affect the content.
From 2015–16, a new Outlook iCalendar is available and is the preferred option for loading into Outlook. For earlier years, where that download is not available, this cvs download should be used. Although Outlook allows the import of .ics and .vcs files, do not load the iCal or vCal files from this site, as they are not configured for Outlook.
iCalendar is a standard format for exchanging calendar data, which can be imported into Apple’s Calendar desktop calendar, or into Google Calendar, or into other iCalendar-compatible software. There are two ways of using this option.
One way is to save the .ics file to your hard disc, then in Calendar select the menu command File -> Import, select the default Calendar option, and then choose the file that you saved. You will probably want to load the data into its own new calendar so that you can manage it separately. From here you can sync the calendar to an iPhone, iPad, iPod, Blackberry, or other Smartphone or PDA.
If you are using a tablet or smartphone with Google Calendar directly, rather than in conjunction with a desktop, then it is easiest to use the Almanac’s subscription link option, rather than download an .ics file. See the Google Calendar section below.
I strongly recommend that you create a new empty calendar before importing. This will enable you to easily remove the data if the import goes wrong or you decide that you don’t want it.
Alternatively, you can subscribe to the calendar directly — see the Subscription section.
There is a known glitch when importing to Apple Calendar, which causes a few users to get multiple copies of calendar entries when importing. Be sure to import into a new calendar, so that if you are unfortunate enough to experience this you can easily correct it. If this happens you may prefer to try the subscription method.
This file is not recommended for use with Outlook: use the Outlook iCalendar file, or else the .csv download.
You can subscribe to the calendar directly from your iPad, iPhone or other iOS device, as well as from many other iCalendar applications on tablets, smartphones and computers. Browse to this page on your device and select the option iCalendar subscription together with the other options you require. This will display a page with another link on it. On an iPad or iPhone (and similar devices) tap on this link to download the Calendar file; your iPhone, iPad (etc) will then ask you if you want to import the file into your Calendar. It may take several minutes for your device to download the calendar, so be patient.
If you are viewing this page and trying to subscribe from within an app such as Facebook, you will need to open this page directly in Safari, as Facebook does not know how to add the download to your Calendar. Select the three vertical dots at the top (iPad) or bottom (iPhone) of the Facebook app, and tap on “Open in Safari”.
On a desktop or laptop computer you can similarly choose the menu option iCalendar subscription together with the other options you require. This will display a page with another link on it. Copy the link to the clipboard by right-clicking and selecting ‘Copy link’ or ‘Copy shortcut’ or similar option. Then in Apple Calendar choose the menu option Calendar -> Subscribe... and paste the link that you have just copied into the Subscribe to: box. The advantage of this method is that any corrections or updates will be applied automatically. You do not have to remove the old entries and reload a new file. The disadvantage is that a subscribed calendar cannot be altered, so you will be unable to add notes or other information into the CW entries in your calendar.
Google Calendar is an iCalendar-based system, and can read the same .ics files as Apple Calendar. These files can be viewed using the Google Calendar web application or added to another desktop calendar. They can also be viewed on smartphones and tablets, including those using Android.
If you are not using a desktop or laptop computer, but want to use the Almanac within Google Calendar on a tablet or smartphone, then the following is recommended:
At the Almanac
- select the options you want
- preview as web page to check you’re getting what you want
- select the download option iCalendar subscription
- log in if not already logged in
- In the left panel click on the dots next to Add calendar and select From URL
- Paste the link that you copied from the Almanac into the box URL of calendar
- Click Add Calendar and wait a few seconds for the calendar to be added
Adding the Almanac to a tablet or phone screen
The Almanac can easily be added as a “shortcut” or “tile” on the home screen of your tablet or phone. See the details below for doing this on an iPad or iPhone. Android information will be added soon.
- On your iPad, in the Safari web browser, browse to almanac.oremus.org/today
-
Tap the Share icon at the top right of the screen.
-
On the panel that is displayed, scroll down and tap on Add to Home
Screen.
-
Tap Add at the top right.
-
Your home screen will now have an Almanac icon or tile. If you tap it, the
Almanac will open in its own window.
- On your iPhone, in the Safari web browser, browse to almanac.oremus.org/today
-
Tap the Share icon at the bottom centre of the screen.
-
On the panel that is displayed, scroll down and tap on Add to Home
Screen.
-
Tap Add at the top right.
-
Your home screen will now have an Almanac icon or tile. If you tap it, the
Almanac will open in its own window.
Further help
If you have read these instructions and the details in the section and need further help, please contact me at simon.kershaw@oremus.org, including detailed information about what you are trying to do, details of any errors, and so on.
Copyright
This Common Worship Almanac and Lectionary is compiled by Simon Kershaw from the Common Worship Calendar and Lectionaries using Almanac Maker © Simon Kershaw 2010–20.
The Revised Common Lectionary is copyright © the Consultation on Common Texts 1992.
The Daily Eucharistic Lectionary is adapted from the Ordo Lectionum Missae of the Roman Catholic Church, reproduced by permission of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy.
Adaptations and additions to the RCL and the DEL, together with Second and Third Service lectionaries and the Weekday Lectionary for Morning and Evening Prayer are copyright © the Archbishops’ Council 1997-2010.
The Additional Weekday Lectionary is copyright © the Archbishops’ Council 2010.
A Lectionary and Additional Collects for Holy Communion [BCP] originates in the 1928 BCP and the BCP according to the use of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon (1960) and was authorized in the Church of England in 1965.
The Anglican Cycle of Prayer is published by the Anglican Consultative Council www.anglicancommunion.org/acp.
The oremus Bible Browser is copyright © Simon Kershaw 1998–2020.
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. nrsvbibles.org.
The Common Worship psalter is © The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, 2000. Common Worship texts are available at www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources.
Texts from The Book of Common Prayer, and from the Authorized Version of the Bible, the rights in which in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown, are reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
Exciting Holiness is copyright © European Province of the Society of Saint Francis 1997, 1999, 2003, 2007. Compiled and edited by Br Tristam SSF and Simon Kershaw. Used by permission. www.excitingholiness.org.
Cookies
Almanac uses optional cookies to remember your location (postcode, latitude and longitude) if you have set it. The integrated Bible Browser also uses cookies to remember the settings options and the most recent bible reference (or references).
Although your web browser automatically sends cookies to the server, the server does not use or store them at all. They are stored only on your device and used only by your web browser to remember your options and to reapply them each time you visit the page. The cookies contain no identifiable information (other, obviously, than the entered postcode) and are not used to tie a session to a user, nor to track you in any way, nor shared with any other party.
Almanac
Almanac implementation is copyright © Simon Kershaw 2006–2020.
The assistance of Peter Owen is gratefully acknowledged.
Touchscreen swiping uses swiped-events.js copyright © 2017 John Doherty. github.com.
Postcodes are looked up using postcodes.io. Sunrise and sunset data is provided by sunrise-sunset.org, and moon times and phases by moonphases.co.uk. Twilight times refer to civil twilight.