Spirits, Saints, and Sinners: A Lesser Triduum

All Hallows Eve

The Feast of All Saints

All Souls Day

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Christians rehearse the rhythm of death and resurrection in the Great Triduum of Holy Week.  But the Paschal mystery is no less central every autumn.  Out of 20 centuries of Christian experience, a three fold celebration has evolved – a mini- season of spirits, saints and souls, with rites and rituals to connect the living and the dead, to hold together the Christian past, the Church’s present, and God’s own future.

The Feast of All Saints sits at the center of our conference theme this year, -- for two thousand years, the face of God has shown through the lives and deaths of God’s faithful folk.  An Evensong for All Saints will celebrate the family album of the household of God. 

For All-Hallows Eve, we will play and pray and sing a liturgy that reminds us that the ghosts and goblins and witches that decorate Halloween festivities are held, like the darkest corners of our human nature and the deepest fears of our human condition, in God’s embrace. 

A requiem for All Souls Day proclaims that faithfulness is not simply for the famous and that our own beloved dead are still shimmering presences for our lives, and at a holy table. 

“With angels and archangels and all the company of heaven,” “even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”