BULLETIN FILLERS
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost (also: All Saints Sunday)  |  2026-11-01  |  Ordinary Time (Green)
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Drop-in copy for your Sunday bulletin or newsletter. Edit freely.


THIS WEEK IN THE CHURCH YEAR
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This Sunday we observe the Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost, also known as All Saints Sunday, in the season of Ordinary Time. The liturgical color is green, which you may notice on the paraments, stole, and banners. The Revised Common Lectionary appoints Matthew 23:1-12; Joshua 3:7-17; Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37; and 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13 for the day. We are in Year A of the three-year cycle.


SPIRITUAL INSIGHT — Wet Feet Come First
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The priests did not wait for the Jordan to stop before stepping in. The story says the soles of their feet dipped in the edge of the water—and only then did the river rise in a heap far upstream. Faith begins at the edge, not after the miracle. The priests carried the ark, the sign of God's presence, into the flood before the water moved. Their wet feet were part of the sign that God was with Joshua as with Moses. If you are waiting for dry ground before you move, Jordan shows a different order.


FROM CHURCH HISTORY — On Canaan's Side
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William Williams's beloved hymn 'Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah' (1745) closes with a prayer drawn from the Jordan crossing: 'When I tread the verge of Jordan, bid my anxious fears subside; death of death and hell's destruction, land me safe on Canaan's side.' The Welsh revivalist wrote it for pilgrims journeying through this life, using Joshua's crossing as a picture of death and entry into the promised land—an apt image for All Saints Sunday.


ARCHAEOLOGY & GEOGRAPHY — Adam and the Jordan Damming
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When Joshua 3 says the Jordan's waters 'stood and rose up in one heap... at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan,' the geography points to a real place. Most scholars identify Adam with Tell ed-Damiyeh, a large mound on the east bank near where the Jabbok enters the Jordan, roughly 17 miles north of Jericho. The steep clay banks at that spot have collapsed into the river during earthquakes, temporarily blocking its flow in recorded history. So the location named in the crossing story is not fanciful; it sits where such a damming is geologically plausible.


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These notes were drafted with AI and screened by a second fact-checking pass, but we are not infallible — please verify any historical, archaeological, or original-language detail against a trusted commentary before you print.

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