Sunday Toolkit — 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 1st November 2026

1. Encouragement

Whoever’s standing at the front this week has an easier task than most. Nothing in either reading is harsh, there’s no violence to sit with and no hard history to apologise for — the biggest decision in front of you is really just how much of a good story to tell, and how slowly to tell it.

It also happens that this Sunday is All Saints’ Day, the day the church remembers the people who never made it into anyone’s official record. That’s worth holding onto if you’re feeling like a small, unofficial part of this whole operation — because the truth is, the people who keep a community like this one running are almost always the ones nobody writes down. However Sunday goes for you, you’re already in good company.

2. This Week’s Reading

Old Testament — 1 Samuel 25:2-3, 18-31 — Abigail. Read on Bible Gateway (NRSVUE).

“Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves, two skins of wine, five sheep ready dressed, five measures of parched grain, one hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys.” (abridged, 1 Samuel 25:18)

New Testament — Philemon 1-7 — Apphia. Read on Bible Gateway (NRSVUE).

“To Apphia our sister … and to the church in your house … the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you.” (abridged, Philemon 2, 7)

A simple way into both: Abigail hears that her husband has insulted an armed man with a grudge and four hundred soldiers, and rather than waiting to see what happens, she quietly loads up enough food to feed an army and goes to meet the danger herself. The reading stops just after her speech — it doesn’t tell you what happens to her husband afterwards, and that’s fine to leave out unless someone asks. Apphia, meanwhile, gets named in the very first line of Paul’s letter and then almost nothing else — a woman clearly important enough to greet by name, and then the letter moves on without telling us why. Both readings leave a gap where a fuller story should be, which fits All Saints rather neatly: the day is built entirely around the gaps in the record.

3. What Richard’s Explored Before

Neither of these readings has come up in any of Richard’s sermons before — this is new ground for him too, the same way Judges was back in October. The one trace of Abigail anywhere in the logs is a passing mention in a 2022 sermon on a different reading, where he quoted a scholar’s point that biblical widows like Naomi, Ruth and Abigail “are not weak but agents advocating for themselves.” That’s it — no sermon has sat with her story directly.

Words for Worship and L3 don’t have anything written for this specific pairing of readings, so there’s nothing to point to by scripture reference. What they do have is a dedicated All Saints’ resource from a past year, built around faithful discipleship and joining the saints of every age — not written for Abigail or Apphia, but a solid fit for the day itself if a service wants to lean into All Saints more than the set readings. Worth knowing it’s a week-label match for the day, not a matched-reading resource.

As for the run of recent Sundays: the last few weeks have moved through a string of women connected to King David’s household — Hannah, then Michal escaping out a window, and now Abigail. If your service has been following that thread, this week continues it nicely, with a woman who acts just as decisively but gets a far gentler ending.

4. Resources

There’s no service folder set up for this Sunday yet on the shared drive — normal four weeks out, so it’s worth checking back closer to the date for the exact liturgy and song list.

The best find for the week: Spill the Beans has a full resource written for exactly this pairing of readings — a retelling of Abigail’s story, discussion starters, a “Load the Donkeys” activity, prayers (including one written in Abigail’s own voice, and one that names Apphia), a short reflection, and a sending. It’s well worth asking Richard for a look at the shared folder — as always, the file itself isn’t linked here for copyright reasons.

Words for Worship also has a dedicated All Saints’ entry from a past year (faithful discipleship, joining the saints of every age, humility) if the service wants to mark the day itself, and L3 has a liturgy from the same point in the calendar last year. Neither is written for these specific readings, so treat them as All Saints material rather than Abigail-and-Apphia material.

5. Songs

Honest note first: there’s no record of either reading being sung for before, so none of these come with a confirmed “we’ve sung this for this exact story” history — said plainly rather than guessed at. The one thing close to a usage history is for the day itself: Goodness Is Stronger Than Evil (John Bell) was sung at this same point in the year last year for All Saints weekend — a safe, familiar choice, though it would be a second year running if used again.

Other options worth considering: Make Me a Channel of Your Peace (TiS 607) is Spill the Beans’ own suggestion for the Abigail story, and the congregation has sung it before. Among Us and Before Us (TiS 259) was sung once before, for Rahab, and fits All Saints’ theme of those who’ve gone before us especially well. There Is a Line of Women (Iona) is a strong thematic fit for a Women’s Lectionary year but hasn’t been sung by this congregation before, so it would need a run-through first rather than being treated as familiar.

6. Weblinks

A curated pick from Richard’s own Websites I Use page. Worth knowing up front: 1 Samuel 25 isn’t part of the standard lectionary most of these sites are built around, so don’t be surprised if some of them come up empty for Abigail specifically — it’s a reflection of the text, not the sites.

Working Preacher — reliable, accessible commentary, written for people preparing to lead worship.
Journey With Jesus — thoughtful, gentle weekly reflections.
Sacredise — liturgy and worship-planning ideas from a similar inclusive tradition.
One Man’s Web — Australian reflections with a progressive bent.
Progressive Christianity — weekly liturgy ideas from a values-aligned network.
Uniting Church List — a hub of denominational lectionary resources.

7. Pop Culture

Five songs for the lead-up to Sunday (never quote the lyrics in worship, just listen and let them sit with you):

Something More Than Free — Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. A quiet song about the dignity of work done without anyone watching or thanking you for it — close to the heart of what Abigail does, and what most of the saints we remember on 1 November actually did.
All My Favorite People — Over the Rhine. A warm, communal song that reads almost like a litany of ordinary, beloved people — about as good a soundtrack for All Saints as you’ll find outside a hymn book.
Song for Zula — Phosphorescent. A steady, clear-eyed song about refusing to be caged by someone else’s idea of you — a good companion to Abigail’s calm, decisive action inside a difficult marriage.
Forever, and No Time at All — Nat Bartsch. A gentle instrumental piece, lovely for sitting quietly with the idea of the saints — those gone before us, held in a kind of time that isn’t quite time.
The Joke — Brandi Carlile. For everyone written off, overlooked, or treated as a footnote in someone else’s story — which is as good a description of Apphia’s one line in Philemon as you’ll find in a pop song.

A book: The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk Kidd — a novel following a slaveholding family’s daughter and Hetty, the enslaved girl given to her as a childhood “gift,” and the long, costly process of coming to see her not as property but as family. It’s a heavier read than most worship leaders will need for a Sunday, but it sits remarkably close to what Philemon is actually asking of its reader — seeing someone as “no longer a slave but a beloved brother [or sister].” Worth having on hand if you want to go further than the toolkit alone.

A film: Hidden Figures (2016, dir. Theodore Melfi) — the true story of three Black women mathematicians at NASA whose work was essential to the early Space Race and routinely overlooked because of their race and gender. It’s warm, often funny, and ultimately hopeful rather than bleak — a lovely match for a week about the people history forgets to credit. Content note: it depicts everyday racial segregation and casual, humiliating discrimination typical of the era; nothing graphic, but a couple of scenes may sting. Rated PG.

8. Notable Dates

A few things worth knowing about in the ten days or so around this Sunday:

31 October — Reformation Day. The day many Protestant churches mark the reforming movements of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries — the emphasis on grace, on Christ at the centre, and on scripture read by everyone rather than kept behind a locked door. A one-line mention in the notices wouldn’t go astray, even in a tradition that doesn’t make a big deal of it.
1 November — All Saints’ Day. Falls on this Sunday itself. The day began because so many early Christian martyrs and faithful people died without anyone recording their names — the church decided to honour all of them together, known and unknown, rather than let them simply be lost. It’s a lovely, simple thing to name out loud in worship: whoever you’re quietly missing, whoever shaped your faith and never got thanked for it, today is their day too.
2 November — All Souls’ Day. The day after All Saints, traditionally widening out from the officially-recognised saints to everyone who has died — a festival for all of humanity’s dead, not just the famous ones. Together with 1 November, it makes a natural weekend for remembering and giving thanks for people now gone.
4 November — Søren Kierkegaard. A nineteenth-century Danish Christian thinker who lost his mother, three siblings and his father within a few years, broke off his own engagement, and on his deathbed refused communion from a state-appointed pastor. He’s remembered for insisting that faith has to be lived, not just assumed — a good sparring partner for a week about who the “faithful” really are.

(A quick honest note: the usual check of the UN’s international-days list and the national and SA Uniting Church news pages couldn’t be completed this run due to a technical hiccup on this end — so this list leans more heavily than usual on the church commemorations calendar. Worth a glance at those sites yourself if you have a moment.)

9. Final Word

A small, practical tip for this week: when you read the list of what Abigail packs onto those donkeys — the loaves, the wine, the sheep, the grain, the raisins, the figs — read it slowly, and don’t rush to the next sentence. Let the room hear how specific and how much it is. A long list read unhurried does more work than any amount of explaining why it matters.

Whatever shape your Sunday takes, may you lead with a steady hand and an open heart, and may this community keep being known, as it always has been, for its faith, inclusivity and creativity. Go gently.