Is it worth buying a new sunday missal?

[alan29]

.... or are significant changes still in the pipeline? I'm thinking readings and psalms here. Don't want to spend money only to find that its "all change" in a couple of years.

[Southern Comfort]

Readings and psalms will, we are informed, change in five years' time. But who really knows>

[Peter Jones]

Look at it another way Alan - outlay, about £20

If it's two years, that about 20 pence a week before redundancy

If it's five years, that's about 8 pence a week before redundancy

[alan29]

Its actually a present for OH who is a reader and uses her present Pope John (remember him?) Missal to prepare the readings. I would like it to have gathered as many associations as that 25 year old volume has.
Two years seems like publishers rushing to earn a swift buck.

[Southern Comfort]

Two years seems like publishers rushing to earn a swift buck.

Don't blame the publishers — nothing to do with them. They simply put out the texts handed down from on high. If and when the new Lectionary arrives on our doorsteps they will have no choice but to put out missals containing the new version of the readings (NRSV translation) and psalms (revised Grail?), even if they have still have stock of what they are publishing right now which they would rather sell than produce a new version.

In terms of publishing economics, you need a certain length of time to dissipate the initial editorial and production costs of something like a missal or a hymn book. After a while, reprints start to show a real profit, since all you need to do is reuse the printing plates (or, in this digital age, run the computer programme again). Making corrections is expensive, and starting again from scratch much more so.