Two All Saints’ Services This Sunday
After my first Memorial Day at Bay Shore Church in 1987, a dear church member asked me why I didn’t say memorial prayers for those who had died. The answers were: 1) no one told me that was apparently a custom here, and 2) Memorial Day is for those who died in service to our country. I told her All Saints’ Sunday would be a good day in which to remember those who have died in the past year. Thus, a new custom was born.
This coming Sunday, we are offering two All Saints’ services. The first, at 9:30 a.m., will include the sacrament of communion, and an opportunity to remember those who died in the past year. First, I will read the names of our church members: Willa Gilmore, Myrtle Welge, Harry Kaul, Irene Neuharth, Jacquelyn Dodge, Albert Sykes, Albern Watts, and Bill Eastman. The church bell will toll once for each one in memory of their presence here. Then I will read the names of your family members and friends who have died. There will be a white card in the worship bulletin on which you may print those names. Afterward, I will offer a prayer of thanksgiving for their lives.
At 5:00 p.m. in Gabrielson Chapel, we will have an All Saints’ Vesper service. This will be a more informal, yet still meaningful service. As you enter the chapel, you may light votive candles in memory of anyone who has died at any time. Place them on the chapel altar. In the service, we will offer a memorial prayer, again giving God thanks for their lives. The service will also have evening hymns we are unable to sing in morning worship. In choosing evening hymns, it took me back to my seminary days when I attended 4:00 p.m. vesper services at First Congregational Church, Berkeley. Julie and I were picking the very same hymns out of the same hymnal I used in the early ‘70s. It was nostalgic, in the best way, as many worship services evoke such feelings in us.
This is the second vesper service we have offered this fall. Fifty-seven persons attended the Taizé service on October 12, so we are anxious to see how this one is received. I hope if such a service sounds meaningful to you, you will join us. Those who would enjoy a dusk service at close of day (especially as Daylight Savings Time will have ended) may find this service meets their needs.
Charlie Ensley
Senior Minister