All Saints Day has become an important worship experience in the life of our congregation. It is difficult to imagine not being together for this particular time of remembrance in which we light a candle in memory of the people in our congregation who are re-born in the presence of God and gone from our sight. We also have been given an opportunity to light a candle ourselves for people or persons in our own life who let God’s light shine in ours. There is something comforting, cathartic, and healing about this ritual each year.

This year, you are encouraged to plan ahead and find a candle (electric or flame), and set up your own table, perhaps with Communion elements as well. It could be a table in your living room, kitchen, or outside. There will be a time in the service in which you are invited to light this candle. You are also encouraged to take a picture of this light and share it on Facebook; there will be a separate post where pictures may be uploaded. It is one way we can visually participate and hold with one another both our lingering grief and our shared hope in the Communion of the saints.

It’s not the same, certainly, but part of the Christian journey is meeting adversity with the resilience God give us. We are a creative and resilient people, finding different ways of being the body of Christ. How fortunate we are that we can continue to connect in ways my grandmothers, who lived through the 1918-20 pandemic, could never have imagined. There is much for which we can be grateful.