The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) will release the new English lectionary for the Church in India on February 16 and it will come into effect from Palm Sunday, on April 5.

The conference claims the new lectionary’s publication is a landmark in the Indian Church history and that it is a contribution of the Church in India to the Universal Church.

“It shows our biblical scholarship and liturgical competence,” says a CCBI press note from its deputy secretary general Father Stephen Alathara.

The CCBI, the national body of the Latin rite bishops in the country, had in 2015 directed its Bible and Liturgy Commissions to prepare the lectionary and they took “almost five years to complete this significant and important project.”

The lectionary presents has been prepared by experienced and prominent biblical scholars ensuring compatibility with Catholic teaching and textual accuracy from the original texts of the scriptures.