From the Rector - November 2024

 Past and Present

 This month begins dramatically for the church with the Feast of All Saints on the First of November. Once known as ‘All Hallows’ it follows the Eve of All Hallows, which has become the secular Halloween. All Saints recognises that the church is made up not only of people who are alive and worship God today, but also of people who have followed the way of Christ in the past, and are now part of the church in heaven (however we might understand it). Celebrations of the lives of those who had been martyred for their faith in times of persecution took place from the 4th century onwards, usually around Easter. But churches in Britain celebrated the lives of ‘the faithful departed’ on the first day of November, and in the 9th Century this date was adopted for the whole of the Western church by Pope Gregory IV. For me, All Saints Day, which we celebrate here as All Saints Sunday (on the 3rd of November this year), is a chance to recognise the preciousness of all human life. Those whom the church officially calls ‘saints’ offer us a beacon of inspiration and encouragement, as they lived out Christ’s command to ‘love one another, as I have loved you’. But they also serve as a reminder of the love, faith and generosity of people today.

 If you were to make a list of saints today, who would you include? As a young man I was inspired by learning about 20th Century ‘saints’, and I have been moved by the memorial to ten ‘Modern Martys’ in Westminster Abbey. This includes Maximilian Kolbe who offered his own life to save a fellow prisoner in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp; Manche Masemola, a young woman murdered for her faith by her own parents in South Africa; Dr Martin Luther King, the murdered US civil rights leader; Esther John, a young woman in Pakistan who lost her life for her faith; and Oscar Romero, the Archbishop of El Salvador, assassinated at the altar in a hospital chapel for his work on behalf of the poor.

 Not all saints are martyrs, and not all Christians feel (or look) saintly, but God calls each of us to live out the command to love. In my work I meet so many people who do exactly that, and this month we remember both the living and the departed who have made God’s love present for us and for others. Services to remember the departed, those whom we love but see no longer, are held at St Laurence, Combe, at 5pm on 3rd November, and St James the Great, Stonesfield, at 5pm on November the 10th. Services to remember those who gave their lives in two world wars are held on Remembrance Sunday, the 10th of November at 10am in each church and 10.45am at our War Memorials. Services to celebrate the love of God and the life which we share today are held every week, and everyone is always welcome.

Revd Ralph Williamson - Rector