Dear Friends
Forgive me for, as it were, jumping ahead to November but during October we will celebrate with services of Harvest Festival which need no explanation and may in some churches have happened by the time you get your magazine. However November sees a number of very special services.
November sees the beginning of All Saints Tide which provides an opportunity to turn away from the ordinary time of the Church year in an autumn month that has its own secular echoes of death and remembering.
Sanctity is – in spite of everything – accessible to people, not as a nice idea but as a reality pumped into the blood stream of the human race by God’s action in the lives of his saints. The dark side of that confident rejoicing in our fellowship with the saints is the Church mourning her departed and commending them in faith and trust to God. This commemoration is a proper corrective to the rather forced jollity which is sometimes substituted for a sober confidence in the power of God alone to bring life out of death, light in our darkness. While we rejoice in the heroic example of the saints, we feel the loss of those we know and love, and many people are helped by holding together these two commemorations.
This year the two celebrations of All Saints and All Souls are arranged to be on the same Sunday, 5th November, and the principle service for All Saints tide is the Eucharist of All Saints Day which will be held at Colemere at 10 o’clock. The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed, All Souls Service, is held every year at Welshampton at 3pm. This is not a communion service but a simple service of remembering those we love and see no longer. There is time for everyone to light a candle in the name of a loved one and the names of those whose funeral has been held in the Benefice over the last 3 years are read out as the candles are lit.
Then the next Sunday, 12th November, is Remembrance Sunday when we come together to remember all those who have given their life in the service of their country. This of course is a National Day of Remembrance, the King will be at the Cenotaph in London with the members of the government from all the political parties and veterans from all the wars.
There will be a Remembrance Sunday service in all the churches, please see the service rota for the times of the various services. Colemere and Petton hold their services in the afternoon so there is plenty of choice throughout the day. Cockshutt and Welshampton begin at 10.45 to keep the silence with the nation at 11.00.
I look forward to meeting many of you at these services.
Love and blessings
Rev Anne
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