Dear friends,
This time in the church’s year is known as the ‘Kingdom Season.’ It includes ‘All Saint’s Day,’ ‘All Soul’s Day’ and ‘Remembrance Sunday.’
On all Saints Day we remember and reflect on those who have gone before us in terms of our faith.
On All Soul’s Day we reflect on and remember our loved ones who are no longer with us but have supported and encouraged on our life journey.
On Remembrance Sunday we reflect on those who have given their lives for their country and have inspired courage and bravery.
They are all about remembering.
But there is more to remembering than mere recollection. We don’t recall events just to test our memories. The function of memory is much richer. There is something in our processing – our mulling, sifting and discerning of events that makes memories richer. It is easy to recall things, but memories are what we hold, value and give us a richer meaning in what we discern.
Remembering is a deeper mystery in which the past, the present and the future become bound up together. When we remember, we actually re-member in the sense that reassemble and recall. We bring out of the past, into the present those whose lives have influenced in our journey of faith – ranging from those well-known saints to those people who have quietly helped us and journeyed alongside us in our own walk of faith. We bring out of the past and into the present those who we have loved and lost and those whom we still love yet see no longer. We bring to the fore those to whom we owe a debt yet cannot repay or thank enough.
We respond with gratitude and thanksgiving for all those who have gone before us. For those who gave their lives so that we might live. For the sacrificial and costly gifts that have been given and for the yesterdays of others that have enabled our tomorrows. For the souls and saints we cherish, those whom we love, yet no longer see. We remember those who have kept and held us together when we felt that we might fall apart. And we look to the future.
We also remember the love, generosity and goodness of God for each one of us and those we love. He knows each one of us, remembers each one of us and cherishes each one of us. Nothing is lost to him. As we come together to worship and to pray, to be silent and recall, in a real sense we build on the dedication and self-sacrifice of the past for the present and for the building of our future.
Please do join us for any of our services during the kingdom season and make it an opportunity of thanksgiving and gratitude to God, to those we have loved and continue to love and to those who have sacrificed so much for us.
Every blessing,
Rev Deborah
St Margaret's Church Prestwich 