This Sunday we will celebrate All Saints Day. It is listed in the calendar for November 1 but we treat is as a "movable feast" - that is, we can move it to the nearest Sunday.
All Saints Day has "its origins in the fourth century, when churches in the East began to celebrate 'the feast of the martyrs of the whole world' on the Sunday after Pentecost. Several Western churches adopted this festival and kept it on various dates in April or May, but in the early Middle Ages the church in Rome assigned it the much later date of November first and broadened the feast to include all the saints. Western Christendom has followed this custom ever since." *
The next day is All Souls Day when "we call to mind all the faithful departed who are now with God in Christ Jesus. We remember all those who have touched our own lives, and the men and women of our own parish whose good works have sustained and enhanced the ongoinglife of our Christian community." *
Our practice at St Agnes is to remember those intered in our memorial Garden on the first Sunday of each month. This Sunday you will have an opportunity to remember those who have died who have a special place in your heart.
* Quoted passages are from For All the Saints, Anglican Book Centre, 1994)
