Third Sunday before Advent

The Common Worship lectionary readings for Third Sunday before Advent in Year C, the liturgical colour, and what changes in the order of service.

Year C · Ordinary Time · red

Year COrdinary Timered

The readings

This Sunday is a Proper, so the Old Testament reading and psalm come in two tracks. Choose one and stay with it for the season — the continuous track reads a book straight through week by week; the related track picks an Old Testament reading that speaks to the Gospel.

Citations follow the Revised Common Lectionary as used in the Church of England's Common Worship principal service lectionary. Verse numbering can differ very slightly between Bible translations.

The liturgical colour

Red for the Spirit and for blood: Pentecost, Passiontide, and the feasts of martyrs. On this Sunday the colour is red.

What changes in the service

The standard shape: Gloria and Creed included, nothing seasonal displacing them.

• RCL: Proper 27

In SundayHQ this is the ordinary template shape. You set your order of service once; when the season turns, one click applies the seasonal change and leaves the rest of your parish's own wording alone.

Hymns that fit these readings

Suggestions matched to the readings above, each with the reason it was chosen:

• Opening — Immortal, invisible, God only wise St Denio; a strong green-season opening
• Gradual — For all the saints 'He is God not of the dead, but of the living'
• Offertory — Lord, for the years Substantial enough to cover the preparation
• Communion — Author of life divine Rhosymedre; a communion hymn proper to the rite
• Final — Guide me, O thou great Redeemer Cwm Rhondda; they will sing it in the car park

When it next falls

Year C comes round every three years. The date moves because the whole calendar hangs off Easter.

The same Sunday in the other years

Questions