Prelude Melodia Africana I by Ludovico Einaudi
Opening Words by Cliff Reed
This is the year’s quiet time,
poised between the fading memories of a summer that has gone
and the prospect of darker days and longer nights,
of a bright festival to relieve the gloom,
and then the long, cold haul to re-awakening and rebirth.
We give thanks for the circling year and its changing seasons,
because we need them all.
And we give thanks for those, who as we do now,
watched the passing seasons before passing into the Great Mystery in their turn, leaving us the legacy of their busy lives.
Chalice Lighting (you may wish to light a candle in your own home at this point). Words by Yvonne Aburrow.
The flame of the chalice consumes the candle,
The flame of life consumes time,
The flame of the spirit feeds on love,
Love that renews itself for ever.
May we give ourselves generously to love,
And open our hearts to receive it.
Opening Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love,
be with us as we gather for worship,
each in our own place.
Help us to feel a sense of community,
even though we are physically apart.
Help us to care for each other,
in this world in which Covid has not yet gone away,
and the clouds of war and climate change overshadow us.
May we keep in touch however we can,
and help each other, however we may.
May we be grateful for the freedoms we have
and respect the wishes of others.
May we hold in our hearts all those
who are grieving, lost, alone,
suffering in any way,
Amen
Reading Saint from Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC by Frederick Buechner
In his holy flirtation with the world, God occasionally drops a pocket handkerchief. These handkerchiefs are called saints.
Many people think of saints as plaster saints or moral exemplars, men and women of such paralysing virtue that they never thought a nasty thought or did an evil deed their whole lives long. As far as I know, real saints never even come close to characterising themselves this way. On the contrary, no less a saint than Saint Paul wrote to Timothy, “I am foremost among sinners,” and Jesus himself prayed God to forgive him his trespasses, and when the rich young man addressed him as “good Teacher”, answered, “No one is good but God alone.”
In other words, the feet of saints are as much of clay as everybody else’s, and their sainthood consists less of what they have done than of what God has for some reason chosen to do through them. When you consider that Saint Mary Magdalene was possessed by seven devils, that Saint Augustine prayed, “Give me chastity and continence, but not now,” that Saint Francis started out as a high-living young dude in downtown Assisi, and that Saint Simeon Stylites spent years on top of a sixty-foot pillar, you figure that maybe there’s nobody God can’t use as a means of grace including even ourselves.
The Holy Spirit has been called “the Lord, giver of life,” and drawing their power from that source, saints are essentially life-givers. To be with them is to become more alive.
Alternative Lord’s Prayer
Spirit of Life and Love, here and everywhere,
May we be aware of your presence in our lives.
May our world be blessed.
May our daily needs be met,
And may our shortcomings be forgiven,
As we forgive those of others.
Give us the strength to resist wrong-doing,
The inspiration and guidance to do right,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
We are your hands in the world; help us to grow.
May we have compassion for all living beings,
And receive whatever life brings,
With courage and trust.
Amen
Reading Genuine gifts by Vernon Marshall, from With Heart and Mind 2
A gift is something we have that marks us out as an individual. It is a natural part of our being. It is a sacred characteristic. It is also a mysterious something. It is something that we have that comes to us without an obvious reason. Sometimes it is unknown to us but has benefits for others. I believe it is something to do with the human soul. We are far more gifted than we realise. We are mirrors of the divine and thus have divine qualities. Our tragedy, alas, is that often we do not realise just how remarkable we are.
To live fruitful lives on earth we need to be reminded over and again just how remarkable we are. There is no need for a communal act of humility. Of course, we feel humble in the face of the mystery of life; we are, however, part of that mystery. When we look at nature and see its beauty as awesome, remember that we are part of that awe of nature. When we hear beautiful music, remember that it is from human hands like ours, and human feelings like ours, that that music came. When we are moved by acts of generosity, remember that we have a portion of that generous nature that is ours as our birth right. We all have the right to be generous.
We all have a gift, and it is a sign from the divine that we are also divine. Like all gifts, we need to accept with a pure heart. We accept with the recognition, not of deserving, not of a quid pro quo, but that it is a free exchange, without expectations. The greatest gift is the gift of life itself. When we reflect on the glory of life, the mystery of life, the perplexity of life, then we can only stand back in praise at the wonder of something beyond us that is so spectacular.
Prayer by Vernon Marshall, from With Heart and Mind 2 (adapted)
To the Great Giver, the Divine Giver, the Benefactor of all, we offer back our sincere gratitude.
We give thanks for the different seasons, bringing us changes, beautifying and nourishing the earth. We give thanks for the many colours that appear to us, often magically, in our homes, through the media, in our gardens.
We give thanks for sights, sounds, smells, that make for us a world of exhilaration and joy.
We give thanks for the gift of creativity, that we can write, and draw, and paint, and play music, and sing, and match our skills to our imagination.
We give thanks for all people who have made our lives so fulfilling with their creative works.
We give thanks for the talents of the worker, constructing homes, schools, hospitals and factories.
We give thanks for the sights and sounds of children at play, delighting us with their verve for living.
We give thanks for human friendship and companionship, for relationships that bond us closer to one another.
We give thanks for life itself, for a sense of meaning and purpose…
For all that makes for life, we give thanks; and vow this day to be eternally grateful to the Founder and Creator, that whom we call God.
Amen
Reading All Souls Day by John Harley, from With Heart and Mind (adapted)
The other day I was sitting in the pub, a few nights before Halloween. It would have been difficult to miss the décor – fake spray-on cobwebs garnishing the draught beer pumps, a plastic skeleton hanging up from a picture and a row of paper pumpkins hung like Christmas decorations.
Apparently Halloween is now the biggest money-spinner for the shops after Christmas… It’s the season of fancy dress parties and the time for lashings of plastic scariness and light-hearted haunting. It’s a big excuse to spook each other and wallow in all the clichés of cauldrons, witches and grim reapers. This can all be a bundle of fun, though it would be a great loss if the increasingly commercial Halloween overshadowed the complementary traditions of All Souls’ Day and Samhain.
All Souls’ Day helps us to get in contact with the healing touch of our ancestors, honour the rich memories of folk lost to us, make our peace with the spirits of the past by offering sweets and learn to enjoy their playfulness. Also we can relearn how life and death are one tapestry. Samhain is the start of the Celtic season of winter. It challenges us to go deeper into ourselves and find a sense of renewal, clarity and wisdom by being still.
I find the following words inspiring. They are taken from a poem called All Souls’ by May Sarton:
Now the dead move through all of us still glowing,
Mother and child, lover and lover mated,
Are wound and bound together and enflowing.
What has been plaited cannot be unplaited –
Only the strands grow richer with each loss
And memory makes kings and queens of us.
Time of Stillness and Reflection by John Harley, from With Heart and Mind
As we slowly tread towards winter, let us learn
how to befriend darkness.
May we find our way in the night and welcome
the shapes we see.
Let us honour the voices of our ancestors,
and the faces of friends,
lost through death or conflict.
May we hear their whispers of wisdom,
of laughter and of love.
May their courage to live life fully
provide energy for our dance on the edge of fear.
Give us the strength to find hidden riches
in the night times of our existence,
and a groundedness that we can bring with us
into our days.
[silence]
As my cheek gently brushes the curtain
marking the transition of light to darkness,
may I know the oneness of all life
and the unity of all seasons.
Amen
Musical Interlude Nefeli by Ludovico Einaudi
Address All Saints and All Souls
Last Friday, 1st November, was the Christian festival of All Saints, which, according to The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, celebrates “all the Christian saints, known and unknown” and yesterday was the festival of All Souls, for “the commemoration of the faithful departed”.
But I would prefer a wider interpretation, a Unitarian twist, if you like, for both these festivals. Because I believe that we all have our own personal “saints” – the people in our lives whose lives and examples have been a gift to us, in whatever way. I believe that without the benign influence of such people, all of us would struggle to grow into our best selves. They are all worthy of being remembered, if they are no longer with us, and appreciated and thanked, if they are yet living, on the festival of All Saints.
As Woodeene Koenig-Bricker points out in their book, 365 saints: your daily guide to the wisdom and wonder of their lives, “The saints were never plaster statues on a heavenly assembly line. They made mistakes in everything from business deals to marriage. They suffered the same heartaches, illnesses, and sorrows that we suffer. And they experienced all the joys of everyday life. They didn’t become saints because they were perfect; they became saints because they let God transform their imperfections….”
The American Presbyterian minister, preacher and theologian, Frederick Buechner reinforces this view: “the feet of saints are as much of clay as everybody else’s, and their sainthood consists less of what they have done than of what God has for some reason chosen to do through them.”
As Vernon Marshall (one of my own personal saints) pointed out in our second reading, we all have gifts which influence how we live in the world, which God can use to work through us. He wrote, “A gift is something we have that marks us out as an individual. It is a natural part of our being. It is a sacred characteristic. It is also a mysterious something. It is something that we have that comes to us without an obvious reason. Sometimes it is unknown to us but has benefits for others. I believe it is something to do with the human soul. We are far more gifted than we realise. We are mirrors of the divine and thus have divine qualities. Our tragedy, alas, is that often we do not realise just how remarkable we are.”
To quote Frederick Buechner again, “As we move around this world and as we act with kindness, perhaps, or with hostility towards the people we meet, we are setting the great spider web atremble. The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops, or in what far place my touch will be felt.”
And in that way, when our ultimate influence is for good, rather than ill, each one of us, ordinary people as we are, can be, in some sense, a saint to someone else. Or a messenger of the Divine, whose words or actions give them a nudge in the right direction at a crucial moment. Through our words and actions, through the example we set, we may (perhaps even unawares) influence the life of another person in a profound way. I am sure that some of my own personal “saints” would be exceedingly surprised to be described in that way. Let me share an example with you…
A good while ago, before I began training to be a minister, I was asked to do a naming ceremony for her infant son by the daughter of a friend in my village. I was delighted to be asked and spent quite a while putting an appropriate service together, which I hoped she and her partner would find both suitable and inspirational. At first, my friend’s daughter was very enthusiastic, but a couple of weeks later, I got an e-mail explaining that they wanted him “to be done properly” in the local parish church. As you might imagine, I was a bit upset, feeling both hurt and rejected. The next time I saw the girl was on the following Friday, down at our local pub, and I found it quite difficult not to let my hurt show.
Which was when a dear friend of mine, who was well aware how upset I had been, took me quietly to one side, and gave me some wise advice, which enabled me to rise above my petty injured pride and talk to the girl normally, and to accept an invitation to read one prayer at the Anglican ceremony, and, more importantly, to do so without resentment.
For me, my friend that night was a saint, in my definition of that word. She intervened in my life at that crucial moment, and showed me that I could make a better choice than that of showing my feelings. I do believe, as I said recently, that people can be angels, saints, messengers of God, to each other, by giving good advice, as my friend did that evening, or through small acts of kindness. Each one of us has the potential to share our divine gifts with someone else, by being a beneficent presence in their lives, enabling them to move beyond their limitations and grow.
Some may wish to deny the influence of others in their lives. For you, your personal “saint” or “angel” may be the voice of your own conscience, the ‘still, small voice’ within that prompts you to take one action rather than another, because it is the ‘right’ thing to do. But I believe that we only have that voice within us, because of the teachings and example of others. Who need not even be known to us personally. Thanks to the efficiencies of modern communications, we can hear stories about people who have gone the extra mile and been a beneficial influence on the wider world.
I know some Unitarian ministers who celebrate the Feast of All Souls annually, as an opportunity to give thanks for the lives of members of their congregations and those close to them, who have passed away during the previous twelve months. Candles are lit and people share stories of the ones they have loved, who are no longer with them in this world. Had this been a live service, rather than an online one, I would have done the same.
It has been a sad year for many of us, during which family members and friends have passed away. I believe it is more important than ever to have an opportunity to come together, even if this is only virtually, to talk about them, to give thanks for their good influence on our lives, and about how much we miss them, now that they are no longer part of our physical world.
Yet I also believe that in some way, we do not lose the ones we have loved completely. The memory of their lives and deeds and good advice lives on in our hearts. We can carry them with us for the rest of our lives.
My friend and colleague, Rev Danny Crosby, wrote on his blog some years ago, “I wonder who and what has been significant in our lives? Who and what has touched and shaped our lives? Who are the significant people, what are the significant moments and events?… Our lives are surely shaped by every moment and person that we share our lives with. … I’ve been thinking of the people who have inspired me. Who gave to me and kept me going in my darkest days…. One of the great figures of the twentieth century came to mind. I remembered a favourite quote of Albert Schweitzer… ‘At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.’ There are many people who have inspired me, who have lit the flame, when all was dark, there are many who have taught me life-enhancing, nay, life-changing things. I was thinking of many of them yesterday during the All Souls’ service as we remembered those who have touched our hearts but who are no longer physically with us. There are so many souls who have inspired me and who continue to do so even though they have long gone.”
I would like to finish by sharing the words of Roger Courtney, from his book, Gathering in Prayer:
“Those who cared for, nurtured and protected us,
they are always with us.
Those who have loved us unselfishly,
they are always with us.
Those we have loved deeply,
they are always with us.
Those who have inspired us to greater things,
they are always with us.
Those who have listened to us when we were struggling and helped to guide us on to the right track,
they are always with us.
Those who shared their wisdom with us and enabled us to see more of the truth,
they are always with us.
Those to whom we have had to say goodbye with great sadness,
they are always with us.”
May we always remember, and appreciate, the saints and kind souls who have shared our lives.
Closing Words by Cliff Reed
Loving Spirit,
be with us as we part.
Bless those who are here.
Bless those who are not here.
Bless those we love and those we should love.
Bless those who need our love and those whom we need to love.
Bless those we would love if we knew them
and those we may never love.
Bless all who love and help us to love when we find it hard.
Amen
Postlude Yerevan by Ludovico Einaudi