Who are you remembering this year on All Saints’ Sunday?
All Saints’ Sunday is the first Sunday in November, and this year, it actually falls on the assigned day for All Saints’ Day, which is November 1. This is the day that Halloween gets its name from (All Saints’ Eve or All Hallows’ Eve). This day is also the church’s version of Memorial Day. It’s the day in the church year when we remember with gratitude and thanksgiving those saints of the church who have died in faith and joined the church triumphant.
This year we are adding something new to our commemoration of the saints. In addition to reading the names and ringing a bell in the services for those members of our church who have died since last year’s All Saints’ Day, we will have a handsome hardback book outside of both worship services where you can write the name(s) of those whom you are remembering this year on All Saints’ Sunday. I know many of you have had a beloved family member or friend who has died in faith this past year, and we want to make sure you have an opportunity to remember their names in worship.
The Book of Names includes phrases from the church’s historic funeral liturgies on each of its pages like “Blessed are those who have died in the Lord,” “Let perpetual light shine upon them,” and “May choirs of angels welcome you.”
We will bring this Book of Names forward to the altar when it is time for us to share in Holy Communion, as a visible reminder of the “communion of saints” that surround us like a “great cloud of witnesses” whenever we gather together at the table of Christ (Hebrews 12:1).
The Book of Names will be outside our worship services this Sunday, October 25, as well as next Sunday, November 1. We will also have it at the reception desk outside the church office throughout the week, for you to write the names of loved ones you are remembering this year.
If you are not able to come by the church in the coming weeks but have loved ones you would like to be remembered, let me know what names you would like included, and I will be honored to write their names into the book.
May the memory of all these saints be a blessing to us today and forevermore.
