All Saints Day Service - November 1
What: Holy Eucharist celebrating All Saints Day
When and where: 12:10p November 1 in the Chapel - done in time to get back to work or home by 1:00p!
Why? Read Below!
What is All Saints Day?
All Saints Day began as the liturgy celebrating the 50th day after Easter, ending the Easter season. With the dedication of a chapel in Rome to All the Saints in the seventh century, All Saints took on its current date (Nov 1) and character—focusing on the saints as exemplars of the faith. All Souls Day (Nov 2) arose in the middle ages to address the pastoral need to pray for everyone else who had died and hoped to be with Christ. All Hallows Eve (Halloween!) took shape as a service like Christmas Eve; it was the day that the people could come to church and pray on the eve before the Feast of All Saints. With the Protestant reformation, our branch of the church shed All Souls for its connection to doctrines of purgatory and association with bargaining for the dead to quite literally help them escape. That is not how we understand life after death. However, we lost the pastoral aspect of that feast in praying for our dead, which is a good and Holy thing to do. The feast returned in many churches as the commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, which remains a feast on November 2. Today, All Saints Day bears the weight of three things—Easter liturgy recalling our Baptismal Vows, remembrance of the Saints, and remembrance of all the departed in most Episcopal Churches.
All Saints, therefore, bears a lot of liturgical weight to address all these things; and it also bears a lot of theological weight as we wrestle with “what happens after we die?” or “where is my loved one now?” What I believe we lose when we put it all together, is a chance for those three focuses to be borne out liturgically as well as the pastoral nature of praying for our dead. This year, at St. John’s, we’ll offer an All Saints service on November 1 at 12:10, and I will preach on the theological questions I have raised above. All Saints Sunday (on November 3rd) will lean into the joyful baptism of several new members of our Christian family, and the sainthood to which we all may aspire as Christians.
However we liturgically observe these important days, I want to assure you that we strive to remember three things: (1) We remember the departed, Saints or saints, (2) those who have gone before us are with God, and (3) we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. However we choose to observe these rich feasts, I pray that we center these things! - Fr. Ben
Excerpted from our October Tidings 2024. This event is part of our Season of Prayer Challenge!