All Saints’ Day

There’s a big holiday next week — and it doesn’t involve costumes or candy. Throughout the history of the church, November 1st has been celebrated as All Saints’ Day. It’s one of the major feast, or celebration, days of the church year. This year, All Saints’ falls on a Tuesday, but we’ll be celebrating it the following Sunday, November 6th.

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