Dear Friends,
Welcome to our November magazine and thanks as always to Alan for editing it. This month of November is a month largely of remembrance. We start on 4th November with our All Souls service at 11am on Saturday 4th November where we remember those we love who have died. The fact of their death does not lessen our love for them and on this day we remember them by name before God, giving thanks for their lives and for the time we shared with them.
The day after, All Saints Day, will be one of joy as a number of children from our church family are baptised and welcomed to God’s church. It’s a day when we remember the saints who have gone before us as well as a reminder that we too are called be to saints – that is how St Paul referred to church members. We will all know people who are saints in one way or another and the lives of saints alive or dead are examples and inspirations to us.
The following Sunday we return again to Remembrance with our annual Remembrance Day service where we remember those who died in war, particularly members of the armed forces and give thanks for their sacrifice for others. The day seems to be significant this year too as we pray for peace in the Holy Land in the face of the huge suffering and also the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. We pray for peace and justice for the people of both these lands.
At the end of the month we have the final Sunday in the current church year when we celebrate Christ the King. This is a relatively recent festival established in the 1920s in the aftermath of the 1st World War and was originally four weeks before Lent. It was moved in the 1960s to the last Sunday of the church’s year and it is both a reminder of Christ’s lordship over all creation and a look towards the second coming of Christ.
As we think about our allegiance to Christ as our Lord it’s also a good time to think about how that affects our lives and how we serve him in our church. As new things start up here at St Mary’s it’s a good time to think again about how you can be involved.
With best wishes,
Mary