This Sunday evening we will be marking our 60th anniversary as a church, and part of that is looking back at our history, seeing how God brought us to where we are today. Looking back is important if you’re going to see your way forward.

This is also true in our walk of faith. As a church we take the time every year on All Saints Sunday to remember those in our congregation who have completed their baptismal journeys and have claimed Christ’s promise of resurrection since last year’s commemoration. 

But we also know who we are as believers is shaped by those who have gone before us throughout our lives. This is why we ask all of you to submit copies of photos for us to display on the walls of our sanctuary and our Fellowship Hall. Doing this reminds us that those people, as members of Christ’s mystical body, worship alongside us even though we cannot see or hear them. Knowing they are with us, even though we cannot understand how, helps us reflect on how their legacy of faith inspires our own walk of faith.

We are pleased to report that the photos we’ve received before have survived the floods and will therefore be displayed on our walls again this year. But if you have any additional photos of departed loved ones that you’d like to see displayed, please make a copy and then put them in the box on the counter in the Narthex marked All Saints Photos. We also welcome copies of photos of deceased pets, as we know they are family too. There will be a special section just for them.

If you can get the photos to us by Saturday, November 1, we will be able to include them in the following day’s All Saints worship.

Another meaningful part of the worship that day will be the opportunity for people to come up and light a candle in memory of your loved ones. This can be a time for healing for you as well as a way to honor them.

Scripture tells us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. We know this is true whenever we gather for worship, but we sense it more keenly on All Saints Sunday, when their faces are on the walls surrounding us. We look forward to joining our voices with their eternal praise of God on November 2 as together, we rejoice in the God of our past, present and future.