All Saint's Sunday

Since we could not have Eucharist this morning we did the Liturgy of the Word today from Rite 2 instead of Morning Prayer. During the Prayers of the People, we had a candle lighting. We had a soft, nubby thick muted olive throw on a side table, and then two inexpensive 14" square chargers that were shiny black. They were positioned on an angle like diamonds. On top of them were multicolored, polished river pebbles of various sizes. Then tucked among them were 40 tea lights, 20 on each plate. In the open spaces between the tops of the two diamonds there was a plain, square crystal candle stick with a tall white pillar candle in it. All around the plates were sea shells in various colors of black, cream, white and gray. People came and lit the tea lights in the flame of the big candle and stood for a moment, taking a sea shell when they went back to their seat. The pianist played soft hymns the entire time. There has been some really hard loss this year; some people sobbed and there was a lot of sniffing- it was really moving. I am glad it was a safe place to do some grieving, but it also seemed to have a healing effect. This was off to the side in the open area to the side of the church. When they were all finished lighting candles, I stood and read all of the names slowly. Then I prayed a prayer about how the light reminded us that we were all of God, as were those we had loved that were no longer with us. The shells reminded us of the continuity of our earthly connection. They got to keep the sea shells.

Those lights stayed lit until most people had left the sanctuary. My second biggest compliment was from one of the women who is more negative usually. She sounded surprised and said, "that was really. . .nice!" The best remark was that someone told me that the 4 year old who lost his Daddy this fall was so delighted to have his Daddy's shell. I was so grateful! And we had 20 today AND I had 5 for Christian Formation!!!

We sang good hymns too, so all in all it was a good day for this grateful Deacon. The PK was his usual wonderful self in acolyte mode!

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