Sunday Toolkit — First Sunday of Advent, 29th November 2026

A note before you start: this is a new season in more ways than one. The Women’s Lectionary finished last Sunday, so we are back on the Revised Common Lectionary. Advent this year runs as a four-week series using the SA Synod’s Making Room resource, which is about disability access, inclusion and belonging, alongside the way the Qur’an tells the story of Zechariah and Mary. Everything here is based on a draft plan on Drive, so please check the final readings and details with Richard.

1. Encouragement

Leading on the first Sunday of a new season can feel like being handed a set of keys to a house you have only half seen. There is a new theme to explain, a reading from another faith’s holy book, and at the heart of the service a stretch of complete silence with nothing for you to say or do. If that makes you a little nervous, you are in good company. Zechariah, in this week’s reading from the Qur’an, loses his words altogether for three nights and leads his people with his hands.

You don’t need to fill every gap on Sunday, or have the theme worked out. Your job is to pay attention to the people in the room and to walk with them into Advent. Thank you for starting us off.

2. This Week’s Reading

Isaiah 64:1-9, the cry to God to come down. Read on Bible Gateway (NRSVue). A people worn out by loss cry out to God, confess that they have faded like a leaf, and end by saying they are clay in the potter’s hands. It is an impatient prayer, and it is allowed to stay impatient.

“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down … we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” (Isaiah 64:1, 8, abridged)

Mark 13:24-37, keep awake. Read on Bible Gateway (NRSVue). Jesus speaks of a darkened sun and falling stars, then turns to something homely: a fig tree coming into leaf, and a household waiting up for someone who could arrive at any hour.

“Beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time will come.” (Mark 13:33)

Qur’an, Surah Maryam 19:2-11, Zechariah. Read Surah 19 on Quran.com. Surah 19 is the chapter named for Mary (Maryam). It opens with Zechariah, old and childless, praying in secret for a son. When he is promised one, he asks for a sign, and the sign is that he will not speak to anyone for three nights. He comes out of the sanctuary and signals to his people to praise God morning and evening.

A few things worth knowing as you prepare. The draft uses the World English Bible and Marmaduke Pickthall’s 1930 translation of the Qur’an because both are public domain and can go on the screen. Both use old-fashioned, male language for God, so talk with Richard about whether to adapt them or use other versions. Three readings is a lot for one reader, so a practice run will help. A simple introduction to the Qur’an reading is plenty: this is the same story as our Muslim neighbours tell it.

Zechariah’s silence is the most interesting detail this week. In Luke 1:20 it comes as a consequence of his doubting. In the Qur’an it is a sign, and Pickthall’s wording says he has “no bodily defect”. The two stories don’t agree, and you don’t need to make them agree. You could let people wonder how it changes things when losing your speech is treated as a gift from God, and when he finds another way to lead.

3. What Richard’s Explored Before

This is close to new ground for Richard. There is no surviving sermon of his on Isaiah 64 or on this part of Mark 13. Advent 1 in this lectionary year was logged on 3 December 2017, when a guest preached at his commissioning, and on 3 December 2023, when only the slides survive. The nearest he has come is a sermon from 6 December 2020, which took “stay awake” as a warning that we can miss what is already in front of us, and looked for God in ordinary things. That is a helpful way into Mark 13, and it steers well clear of end-of-the-world anxiety.

Zechariah has come up several times, including “Voiceless woman, and mute men” on 21 December 2025 and the sermon of 22 December 2024. Both looked at who gets a voice, with Mary and Elizabeth trusted while the priest falls silent. None of these read his silence through the lens of disability, so this year asks something fresh.

Disability and inclusion. The closest match is 21 August 2022, on the woman bent over in Luke 13, where Richard noticed how she becomes an object lesson in her own story, much as disabled people are sidelined in theirs. On 9 August 2026 the Reflection was a conversation about the friends who dug through the roof in Luke 5, and about buildings that shut people out. That one will still be fresh for many in the room.

The Qur’an. I can’t find any past service here that has used it, so this is a first for many people. Saying so gently at the start may help.

Past liturgies. Words for Worship has files dated 29 November 2020 and 3 December 2023. The index calls them Year A, but their dates fall on Advent 1 of Year B, and an earlier draft for this Sunday confirms the 2023 file was written for these readings. L3 and Spill the Beans have nothing for this week.

Where the congregation has just been. The last two Sundays closed the Women’s Lectionary with the Queen of Sheba and then Huldah, two women who were listened to by people in power. So the move into Advent goes from a year of naming women who were overlooked to a season of noticing who else we overlook, and there is a natural bridge there for your welcome.

4. Resources

The draft liturgy is well advanced. Look for liturgy – 29.11.26 (Advent 1) in the “advent thoughts” folder on Drive. It is newer and fuller than the older file in the 29.11.26 folder, which has only the Isaiah and Mark readings. There is no service bibliography for this Sunday yet, so this toolkit has worked from the draft.

Making Room Advent 2026 is the SA Synod’s resource, and the draft already draws on its Call to Worship, candle prayer, Prayer of Confession, Prayer for Illumination, Prayers for Others and Ourselves, Offering prayer and Commissioning. Its heading for this week is “Stay Awake: Hope notices what we have learned not to see”. It is in the shared folder rather than online, so I haven’t linked it. Its question for the congregation is a good one for Community Sharing: what have we stopped noticing that prevents someone from participating fully in our common life?

The candle. The house Advent words are in the draft, as used last year. The draft notes a choice still to be made for later weeks, as this church’s order is Hope, Peace, Love, Joy, while Making Room swaps the last two. Hope comes first either way, so it doesn’t affect your Sunday.

Something to do with your body. The Centring Meditation in the draft is two minutes of full silence with nothing on the screen, then an invitation to answer “Glorify God morning and evening” with a gesture of your own: open hands, a raised hand, a nod. If you would like to use an Auslan sign, look it up on Auslan Signbank, and ideally learn it from a Deaf signer rather than inventing one. Everything sensory is an invitation, with a way to take part without joining in, and a quiet corner available. Making Room asks that people with lived experience help plan these things, so please check the plan with them well before Sunday.

A practice for the week. Making Room suggests an “Advent noticing walk”. Two or three people, including people with lived experience of disability, move through arrival, signage, the entrance, seating, toilets, worship and morning tea, and write down what helps and what gets in the way. It asks you not to fix everything yet, only to learn to see. You could mention this in the News and Notices.

A possible Acknowledgement of Country, since the draft still says “to come”. Use it, change it, or ignore it:

We have been told to stay awake, and we confess how much we have slept through.
We meet on Kaurna Yerta, and we notice what this country’s history has trained us not to see.
The Kaurna people have watched over this place for countless generations, and they are still here.
Sovereignty was never ceded. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.
Wake us to the truth of where we stand, and to the people whose stories we have stepped around.
May we keep watch for truth, treaty and justice. Amen.

Some gentle care notes. It is easy to reach for “blind to” or “deaf to” when we talk about not noticing, especially on a Sunday about staying awake. Try “overlooked”, “ignored” or “failed to notice” instead, as those words won’t turn someone’s body into a picture of a spiritual problem. Speak of people with disability as people who lead and give, as well as people we welcome. Making Room’s prayer puts it well, asking to stay awake to suffering without making suffering the whole story. Isaiah’s language of being “unclean” can also be painful for anyone who has been told their body or their love is unclean, so a light touch helps there.

5. Songs

Used before: The draft already has TiS 286 Light One Candle verse 1 after the candle, and Prepare the Way of the Lord (Taizé) framing the Reflection, the same pattern as Advent 2025. Those were sung last Advent, so they will feel like home. I can’t find a record of any song being tied to these exact readings. Three song slots are still open.

Jesus Christ Is Waiting (John L. Bell and Graham Maule, TiS 665). The waiting here is the other way around: Christ waiting in the streets, among people others pass by. Sung on 9 November 2025, so it should be familiar.
Draw the Circle Wide (Gordon Light). Very well known here, sung most recently on 5 July 2026. It says in song what Making Room is asking for.
Lord of All Hopefulness (Jan Struther, TiS 613, ATOK 405). A gentle hymn for the Sunday of Hope. Its verses move through the hours of the day, which sits nicely beside the watches of the night in Mark. I haven’t found when it was last sung, so ask the musicians.
Stay Awake (ATE 303). The title couldn’t be closer. I can’t confirm the congregation has ever sung it, or which setting this is, so I haven’t linked it. Check the book, and if it is new to them it will need a run-through.

Two small notes. Christ Be Our Light is on the plan for 8 November, so it may be worth giving it a rest. And the collection includes The Blind Man (ATN 23), which is worth a careful look at how it treats disability before anyone chooses it for this series.

6. Weblinks

These readings are in the standard lectionary again, so Richard’s usual sites have plenty this week:

Working Preacher, Courtney V. Buggs on Mark 13:24-37. A short commentary written for this same Sunday in 2020.
Bill Loader on Mark 13:24-37. An Australian New Testament scholar who reads the passage as alertness to the world, with no date-setting, for people living under oppression.
Rex Hunt’s liturgies. Progressive Australian liturgies that suit this congregation’s style. Look in the Year B pages.
Howard Wallace. A Uniting Church Old Testament scholar’s comments on the lectionary, with a section for Year B that is useful for Isaiah.
Uniting Church Lectionary 2026-2027. The Assembly’s new Year B lectionary, with a download, handy now that we are back on it.

7. Pop Culture

Five songs for the lead-up to the service:

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, “Hope the High Road”. A song about choosing hope when the times give you few reasons to, for the Sunday of the Hope candle.
Simon & Garfunkel, “The Sound of Silence”. You know this one. Listen again with Sunday’s two minutes of quiet in mind, and with Zechariah, and think about who isn’t being heard.
Gurrumul with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, “Wiyathul”. Gurrumul was a Yolngu man, blind from birth, and one of this country’s great voices. You may not know the words, and you can listen closely anyway.
Nat Bartsch, “Brightness In The Hills”. Quiet piano from her album Hope, for sitting still before Sunday.
Arcade Fire, “Wake Up”. Big, joyful and a bit loud, in case “keep awake” needs some volume after all that silence.

From the library: Lucy Winkett, Our Sound is Our Wound: Contemplative Listening to a Noisy World. A book on prayer and listening, and a good companion for a Sunday built around silence and attention. There is nothing on disability theology on Richard’s shelf that I would point you to, so this picks up the listening side of the week.

On screen: Crip Camp (2020, directed by Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht, on Netflix). A documentary about a summer camp for disabled teenagers in the 1970s, where young people were taken seriously, many for the first time, and went on to help lead the US disability rights movement. It is funny, warm and angry, and LeBrecht was one of those campers. Things to know: the title uses a word some disabled people have reclaimed, the campers talk frankly about sex and their bodies, and it isn’t one for young children. I couldn’t confirm the Australian rating, so check it on Netflix.

8. Notable Dates

25 November: G. F. Handel and J. S. Bach, remembered in the Uniting Church’s Calendar of Commemorations alongside Isaac Watts. Handel lived with partial paralysis after a stroke and was completely blind by 1752, and went on composing with a copyist and directing performances until days before his death. Bach was blind in his last months. They could be a natural mention in a series on disability and gifts.
25 November to 10 December: 16 Days of Activism, which begins on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This community marked its start on Advent 1 last year, so a line in the Prayers for Others and Ourselves would fit.
29 November: Dorothy Day, on the very day of your service, and the anniversary of her death in 1980. She lived for years in a House of Hospitality with people who had nowhere else to go. The Calendar says that when things got too noisy there she would open her door and call for “Holy Silence”. It would make a lovely way to introduce the two minutes.
1 December: World AIDS Day. A day that matters deeply to queer communities and to many families. You might name it in the prayers, and remember those we have lost and those living with HIV.
3 December: International Day of People with Disability, the reason Making Room exists. The draft has a short acknowledgement ready for the News and Notices, giving thanks for people with disability as members, leaders, friends and neighbours.

9. Final Word

Here is a practical one for this week: try the silence at home with a timer before Sunday. Two minutes feels far longer from the front than it does from a seat. If you tell people how long it will be before you start, and you stay still and relaxed while it happens, they will trust it. You might sit down so that everyone can see you are in the silence too. Fidgeting with your notes is the only thing likely to break it, so put them down.

May you find enough quiet this week to hear your own breath. May you notice who is here, and who isn’t yet, and may hope keep you company as you light the first candle.