"I have been posting assigned chapters as text on the home page, within each week. The problem with that is that if we push a reading back by a week, then I have to adjust the text on each week's page, which involves odius amounts of cutting and pasting."
We treat readings somewhat differently, as they are usually associated with an assignment. Therefore, in order to keep the main Moodle page from being overwhelmed with reading items, as well as to make sure students see that the readings are related to assignments, we put the readings directly into the assignments. I have a CSS class that I use to highlight the readings so they are always displayed in a separate colored box. This way, when I move assignments around, the readings go with them.
This may not respond to your specific context if your readings are attached to a topic rather than assignment, although you might also think about creating a single assignment called "reading" and then putting all of your readings in that one assignment.