All Souls 1st November 2026

The annual All Souls service, with the reading of the list of departed loved ones and lighting of candles in commemoration is always a moving occasion.  This year’s service was made additionally memorable by the address given by Rev. Emma, whose words I know were a great comfort to many who attended the service.  For anyone who was unable to attend the service, or would like to reflect once again on Rev. Emma’s words, here is the full text of what she said.

All Soul’s Day is about remembering the faithful departed. We are setting aside some time to think about those we have lost - either recently or many years ago - giving thanks for their lives and remembering them with love.

It’s a funny expression we use when we say “those we have lost” - I’m not sure quite what we mean by that? lost from our lives I suppose, lost from this world certainly, or as in the dictionary definition - can no longer be found. But our loved ones shouldn’t feel lost to us because they can be found and do live on in our memories. And that can and should be very real. It’s good to keep talking about them, remembering all their funny and loving ways! I’m currently reading one of my Mum’s old diaries and it’s really bringing her alive to me in a totally unexpected way.

The word remember means exactly that - to re-member - to piece something back together, back where it belongs with the rest of its members. By our remembrance of our loved ones, how we talk and share stories about them, we piece them back together in our minds and our hearts and they continue to live on with us just as they live on with God.

Because as Christians - believing in the spiritual dimension of humankind and not just the physical - we can know that our loved ones are certainly not lost to God. Our God is a God of life, and the Bible tells us “To Him all of them are alive!” (Luke 20:38)

We are locked within time, but God is the God of eternity, without beginning and without end. From everlasting to everlasting! For God there is no past, present or future but a continuous state of being: eternity. And you, me and all our loved ones, past and present - whether we understand it or not - were made for eternity.

We heard some very encouraging words in our Bible readings this evening, the promises of Jesus himself. Here is another translation of some of those verses:

“Don't be worried! There are many rooms in my Father's house and I am going there to prepare a place for each of you. After I have done this, I will come back and take you with me. Then we will be together.

Yes, God will make his home among his people. He will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain. These things of the past are gone forever.” (CEV)

Loved ones may be lost from this world but they are at home with God and I pray that that belief may bring us hope, even though it doesn’t erase our pain of loss. Love comes at a cost: a cost that we bear most acutely when those we love are taken from us, whether after a long and full life or far too soon.

So let us think of them as people who continue to encourage us with their courage; continue to make us laugh with their humour and their funny ways; and continue to stir love in our hearts with their love because, in more than just our memories, they live on with God.