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The observance of All Saints’ Day has
a long tradition in the ecumenical church, but many Presbyterians
have begun marking this festival only recently. All Saints’
Day affords us a special opportunity to celebrate with gratitude
the lives of the saints from our own congregation, as well as
those from other times and places. We honor them as our forebears
and examples in the faith. In some places, Reformed churches
use this festival to honor especially the saints of the sixteenth-century
Reformation, in conjunction with Reformation Day, which falls
on October 31. Some congregations sponsor Halloween parties
on October 31 at which children are invited to dress up as saints.
While All Saints’ Day falls on November
1 each year, it may be appropriately celebrated on the Lord’s
Day immediately following. Prayers and responses appropriate
for All Saints’ Day are available in the Book of Common
Worship, pp. 385–391.
While The Presbyterian Hymnal does
not have a section of hymns specifically assigned for All Saints’
Day, the following are most fitting for this festival:
“For All the Saints” (PH #526)
“Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones” (PH #451)
“I Sing a Song of the Saints of God” (PH
#364)—this hymn, originally written for children, is
wonderfully effective for all ages.
As enacted worship, a congregation might use
a parade of banners to celebrate with gratitude its saints who
have gone before. Children may be invited to dress as particular
saints to reinforce the day’s message: “Luke”
could carry a banner celebrating the church’s ministry
of healing; “Mother Teresa” could carry a banner marking
the church’s service to the poor; “Martin Luther King”
could carry a banner celebrating reconciliation and equality;
the “mothers of the church” could carry a quilt representing
the congregation’s heritage. I have found it effective
to gather children around a church’s memorial window(s)
during Sunday school or a children’s sermon; there we discuss
the faith witness of those so memorialized and how that witness
may tie into the visual themes of the stained glass.
It is especially appropriate to publish on
this day a necrology of church members and friends who have
died over the past year. A grateful public recognition of the
recently departed can be of great comfort to family members
facing their first holiday season without their loved one. Consider
asking the children of the church to undertake projects designed
to comfort the bereaved—their capacity for extending Christ’s
peace can be truly astonishing!
Sheldon
W. Sorge is Associate for Theology and Worship and can
be contacted at (888) 728-7228, ext. 5310.
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