Ordinary Time

2022 All Saints'

All Years

People love the fall season, and they love Halloween!

Americans spend an  estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween costumes, candy, and  decorations, making it the country’s second-largest commercial holiday  after Christmas.

Halloween comes from a Celtic term for All Hallows’ Eve, the evening before All  Hallows’ Day (otherwise known as All Saints’ Day). As Christians, we are  firm in our belief of resurrection as a daily practice, and Halloween  is a time to delight in a faith that allows us to step close to what is  scary or deathly and not succumb to the power of darkness.

All Saints’ Day is always November 1. It is a day to remember all the saints with a  capital “S.” When All Saints’ falls on a weekday, it is celebrated the  following Sunday – this year that’s November 6.

However, over time, people  felt the need to distinguish between outstanding “Saints” and family  members and friends, so they came up with the Commemoration of All  Faithful Departed, appearing in the Book of Common Prayer in 1979. It is  celebrated on November 2, as All Souls’ Day.

The All Saints’ service of  Holy Communion for November 6 this year is meant to remind us of the  power of life over death, and to honor those we love who have entered  eternal life.

In the Service of Word and  Prayer, we celebrate the communion of saints as we remember the dead,  both in the wider Church universal and those of our local congregations.  The names of persons in the congregation who have died during the past  year may be solemnly read. We also pray that we may be counted among the  company of the faithful in God’s eternal realm.

All Saints’ has wonderful  hymnody, and typically we get to sing these hymns only one day a  year. How about singing “Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones” instead of the  Gloria this year? A quick Google of All Saints’ Hymns brings up the  usual suspects. Go to https://www.liturgytools.net/2012/10/hymns-for-feast-of-all-saints.html for a few interesting suggestions.

The material provided  below via the links can be adapted to your congregation’s needs. You  change the names of the saints in the Eucharistic Prayer to include your  church’s namesake, or saints you have recently preached about. You can  also collect names of the departed either by email in the next week or  so, or at the beginning of the service.