We talk a lot about the Communion of Saints.  This past Sunday was an immersion in that communion.  Surrounded by pictures of friends and family who have died during the past year, recalling their names, naming and welcoming the newly baptized into this communion, and walking as a community to the altar where we laid down pledges of our commitment to God and one another, all of these are expressions our our communal life.

There is no richer communal focus in the liturgical year than All Saints and All Souls.  Its whole purpose is to remind us of those to whom we belong and those who belong to us, those who have gone before us and those who are yet to come.  I find it compelling that a feast reminding us of our mortality also allows the experience of such deep belonging.  It is a paradox of great richness. 

I also love the visual of Episcopalians 'walking an aisle' when placing our pledge cards on the altar.  We don't tend to have altar calls in our tradition and yet each fall we do walk the aisle in order to tangibly express our commitment to and our need for one another and for God.  Laying our pledge cards on the altar manifests our public affirmation of communal life found, yearned for and offered one to another.  I am deeply moved each year by what is proclaimed in this act.

As we continue our path to the culmination of this liturgical year we are beginning to hear texts proclaiming endings.  Some of the texts are quite vivid in their descriptions.  If I have learned anything about endings, it is that they are to be encountered with a community.  All Saints and All Souls remind us of the community, the communion, in which we live.

Peace,

Todd

p.s. If you were unable to bring your pledge card to church on Sunday, you may either place it in the offering plate on Sunday or mail it to the church.