Introduction
All Saints Day is traditionally celebrated on 1 November. Initiated in the eighth century by the Catholic Church as a day to commemorate all the ‘official’ Saints or martyrs who didn’t already have a specific day of remembrance, it has become a day for celebrating all those followers of Jesus whose lives have inspired us. This day is a chance to remember those Christians who have gone before us and influenced our lives in some way and to reflect on the continued presence of Christ on earth through his followers.
All Souls Day on 2 November is in many ways an extension of All Saints Day, but with particular emphasis on remembering those who have died. It fell out of Reformed church practice for a while, due to objections to the Catholic practice of praying for the dead so that they might be released from Purgatory, but the modern Anglican calendar has re-established it. Odilo, the abbot of Cluny monastery, inaugurated All Souls in 998 as a day to remember ‘all the dead who have existed from the beginning of the world to the end of time.’ It is a time also to reflect on the hope that is part of the Christian faith – that of life beyond this life.
All Saints and All Souls are connected to Halloween (31 October). The origin of this tradition is Celtic, and was based originally on the Northern Hemisphere change of seasons from summer to winter. This was the ancient Celtic New Year, or Samhain (Sow-en). The Celts believed that this magical time of seasonal transition opened up a connection to the dead. They believed that the world of the living was closest to the world of the dead at Samhain and at this time the spirits of the dead travelled among the living. The church objected to the fascination with the spirits of the dead and so began to characterise them as evil forces associated with the devil. That’s where a lot of today’s Halloween imagery comes from. The name ‘Halloween’ comes from ‘All Hallows Eve’ (Hallows e‘en), the night before ‘All Hallows Day’. Hallow means ‘holy’ or ‘holy one’. All Hallows Day is All Saints Day.
In some parts of the world, particularly Mexico, All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day and All Souls Day are celebrated collectively as ‘The Days of the Dead’. So we need to be careful with the imagery and how we reframe it, but there is a wealth of useable stuff in these days.
All Saints Day
Symbols, Colours, Music, Images, Ritual Actions, Miscellaneous Ideas
Colour: white or violet
Hymns and songs:
For All the Saints
I Sing a Song of the Saints of God
A large cardboard cloud shape.
Invite the congregation to think about someone who has been special in their ‘cloud of witnesses’ – those who have helped and encouraged them. People write on small paper clouds and bring to the front and attach them to the big cloud.
Texts, Prayers, Readings,
For Lectionary texts consult your lectionary or www.textweek.com Also Matthew 28:20 Jesus: I am with you always.
All Souls Day
Symbols, Colours, Music, Images, Ritual Actions, Miscellaneous Ideas
Colour: white
Some churches use this day to invite everyone in their community who has experienced a loss in the past year to attend a special service of remembrance. Opportunities for candle lighting, placing a photo or memorabilia, making prayers, communally recognising the grief and loss and writing in a book of remembrance may all be part of this service. It is a wonderful occasion to offer the resources of the Church to the community at large.
All Souls Communion (Cityside, 2001)
Environment:
Celtic cross shaped ‘table’ made out of boxes covered in black cloth with circular table as the centre, covered in 40 large-ish candles of assorted colours and white stones filling in the shape. The communion elements were placed on the circular table as normal. Other equipment was a ‘diptych’ or black-covered ‘book cover’ inside which people could record names: a ‘book of the dead’. The scripture reading was printed in the newsletter for later reflection.
Introduction (following general introduction to the concept of All Souls):
Today we are going to give space to reflecting on and remembering people who have died. Particularly those near to us, and those who have died this year past. If your life hasn’t been touched by a close and recent death you might like to think about a victim or victims of violence in our country, our nation, or somewhere else in our world; or of someone you know who has been grieving recently.
You are invited to light a candle in memory of this person or group of people, as a symbol of our prayers for them, and also to record her/his/their names in this folder. In the early days of Christianity through to the 14th Century (East, 12th West), the Church listed the names of their dead in folder-like ‘books’ called diptychs. Like notebooks with only covers, they were made of wood, ivory, bone or metal. The inner surfaces were covered with wax and names scratched into it.
So…during communion, please feel free to light a candle, add to/write in the diptych, or write a note and place it in the diptych – it doesn’t matter if it becomes a triptych, or polytych! If it’s appropriate, I’ll read these names as part of our prayers after communion.
Communion:
Reading: Romans 5:1-11 (Message)
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Words of Institution
Taking of Elements: (Tracks: ex Parachute Band, Amazing, #4, #5, #6 (looped), lyrics on OHT, Video Loop: ‘gravestones’ ex Images For Worship #3. 1999, One Small Barking Dog, www.osbd.org)
Post Communion Sentences: “…Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26), “…Jesus said ‘God blesses people who grieve. They will find comfort!’ “ (Matthew 5:4), “ I am with you always” (Matt 28:20).
Prayers for those who grieve: Prayer for the grieving, followed by the list of names and prayers written in the diptych, then, together, the Lord’s Prayer.
Other ideas:
Video Track: The scene from Truly Madly Deeply, where she’s playing the piano after he’s died and then he appears behind her and starts playing the cello.
Get people to bring along photos of loved ones, or items connected with them, and create a shrine, light candles etc – people can write notes to loved ones, or write something about them.
Song track: ‘Smile’ by Michael Jackson.
Congregational songs/hymns:
For All the Saints
We Trust in You, Our Shield and Our Defender
In Paradisi, where all the dead are living (chant)
‘ Death Is…’ and ‘ Remembering (When Someone Has Died)…’ on spoken word CD ‘Life, Death, God:
meditations by Martin Wroe’ 2002 Sticky Music GUMCD43. www.stickymusic.co.uk
Write the names of those you want to remember on a strip of paper (10mm x 100mm ie 1/2 “ x 4”). Wind this
strip around a votive candle and light the candle in a sand tray. As the candle burns down the paper strip
catches fire too.
Texts, Prayers, Readings,
Bible readings:
Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8, 1 Corinthians 13:4-13
Combined All Saints/All Souls Day Service November 2, 2003
(recycled and modified from 2001 service)
Introduction (used as Call to Worship)
As an introduction I read out the introductory text re: All Saints/All Souls (see above), and then said:
Today we are going to combine the themes of remembering those who have died with celebrating those who have helped us on the way.
Communion
Environment: Circular low, black ‘altar’ table as the centre, covered in 40 large-ish candles of assorted colours and sizes. The communion elements were placed on low black boxes around the circular table. Canlde trays with small votive candles available around walls of space. Other equipment was a ‘diptych’ or black-covered ‘book cover’ inside which people could record names: a ‘book of the dead’. This had two different coloured sets of pages available, one with the heading ‘We Remember…’ and the other ‘ We Celebrate…’ Scripture passage and Lord’s Prayer were printed in the newsletter for later reflection.
Introduction Rant: I have been particularly aware of death and loss over these last few weeks.
The death of my good friend Wayne Wright, followed by that of Brian Hathaway;
correspondence with Marie Jamieson’s family still grieving her death by murder and the lack of resolution to that case; the death of Mike Yaconelli by car accident Thursday; car and suicide bombings.
And at a lesser level the material losses by people in the Southern Californian fires, and the massive hail storm on the Gold Coast of Australia.
These situations also remind me of saints. Those people who have been significant in my life. People I am thankful to for their words at the right time, their support, their example, their friendship.
Today we are going to give space to reflecting on and remembering people who have died.
Particularly those near to us, and those who have died this year past.
If your life hasn’t been touched by a close and recent death you might like to think about a victim, or victims of violence in our country, our nation, or somewhere else in our world; or of someone you know who has been grieving recently.
We are also going to celebrate those who have been significant in our lives so far.
Maybe a parent or friend, a writer, a speaker…someone who has helped you to live life better.
Maybe Christian, maybe not.
I invite you to light a candle in memory of this person or people, as a symbol of your prayers for them — either on this table or in the candle trays;
and also to record her/his/their names in one of these folders.
In the early days of Christianity through to the 14th Century (East, 12th West) the Church listed the names of their dead in folder-like ‘books’ called diptychs.
Like notebooks with only covers, they were made of wood, ivory, bone or metal.
The inner surfaces were covered with wax and names scratched into it.
Today our book will carry the names and comments about the dead and the living.
Those we want to remember, those we want to celebrate for whatever reason this morning.
So…during communion, please feel free to light a candle, add to/write in the diptych, or write a note and place it in the diptych later– it doesn’t matter if it becomes a triptych, or polytych!
If it’s appropriate, I’ll read these names as part of our prayers after communion.
Reading: I Corinthians 11/22f, The Message. (Use as Words Of Institution)
Track: ‘ Death Is…’ on spoken word CD Life, Death, God: meditations by Martin Wroe ,2002 Sticky Music GUMCD43. www.stickymusic.co.uk
Taking of Elements: (Tracks: ex Amazing, Parachute Band #4, #5, #6 (looped), lyrics on OHT, Video Loop: gravestones ex Images For Worship #3. 1999, One Small Barking Dog, www.osbd.org)
Post Communion Sentences: “…Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26), “…Jesus said ‘God blesses people who grieve. They will find comfort!’ “ (Matthew 5:4), “I am with you always” (Matt 28:20).
Prayers for those who grieve and thanks for those we celebrate: Prayers, followed by the list of names and prayers written in the diptych, then together, the Lord’s Prayer.