So what’s All Saints’ about? Well, it’s about all the saints. Not just the folks with “St.” in front of their name, but all Christians throughout the whole history of the church. It’s a day when we celebrate the “communion of the saints,” as we say in the Apostles’ Creed — the fact that, through the power of the Holy Spirit, all followers of Jesus across space and time are joined together in one body. That’s why it’s a great time to baptize people — because in baptism, the Holy Spirit joins us into the communion of saints. I’m thrilled that we’ll be baptizing eight people on that Sunday!

All Saints’ has also become an occasion when we take time to remember loved ones who have died — those saints who’ve gone before us into God’s kingdom. We know that many of you have lost loved ones this year, and we want to take time in our worship to remember them. If someone you love has died in the last year, we invite you to send us their name and a photo. We will put all of these together and include them in remembrance and celebration in our worship. Just email them to becky [at] restorationarlington [dot] org by Wednesday, November 3.

- Erin

Even as we journey deep into the heart of Lent, we’re keeping our eyes lifted toward Holy Week and the great hope of Jesus’ resurrection.  The culmination of all of our Holy Week services and the beginning of our celebration of Easter is the Great Vigil of Easter.  The Vigil is held the Saturday night before Easter Sunday.  This year, it’s on April 3rd at 8:30 pm.

The Vigil is a beautiful, powerful service of worship (definitely my favorite of the whole year).  The liturgy is in four parts, and through scripture, song, and sacrament, it unfolds the great story of redemption.  It begins in silent darkness and proceeds to a joyous, light-filled proclamation of Alleluia!

The Vigil dates back to the earliest centuries of the church, when it was the time that new converts to the Christian faith were baptized. (This came after a period of preparation and fasting — what eventually became the season of Lent.)  Baptism is still at the heart of the Easter Vigil.  Not only will we all renew our baptismal vows, but we’ll have the opportunity to baptize any adults who want to be baptized!

Would you like to be baptized? If you have committed to following Jesus as the one who forgives and rescues you — or if you would like to — and you’ve never been baptized, we would love to baptize you at the Easter Vigil.  If you’re interested or have questions, please contact David or Erin (you can reach us here). We’d love to talk with you!

(If you have an infant whom you would like to be baptized, we’ll have infant baptisms on Pentecost, May 23rd. Please contact us if you’re interested.)

I really hope that all of you will consider coming to the Great Vigil of Easter. I promise that you’ll experience the joy of Christ’s resurrection in a profoundly powerful way!