Almighty God, whose people are knit together in one holy Church, the mystical Body of your Son, grant us grace to follow your blessed saints in lives of faith and commitment,
and to know the inexpressible joys you have prepared for those who love you; through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
(Collect for All Saints, Book of Alternative Services, Anglican Church of Canada, p. 428)
All Saints' is one of my favourite feats of the year. In fact, outside the Triduum, it probably is my most anticipated celebrations every year. For me, it is not just a commemoration of the great cloud of witnesses and not just a celebration of the saints who were, who are, and who will be. But for me, All Saints speaks deeply of the Incarnation, of God's coming into the flesh, an event that is unique in Jesus of Nazareth, but that is also re-revealed over and over again in the lives of those who are faithful to the call of our triune God, whatever the call me be. And yes, this means that I do not believe that in the economy of God there is a difference between those saints on the one hand, whose faith is known to God alone and those saints, who are venerated in special way in the life of the church. Which also means that I believe we really have to rethink our theology and liturgical practises around All Souls' and All Saints'...
The two festivals came into existence in the Western part of the church in their current format some 900 years ago. The underlying theology for having two separate days was a development in Western theology that maintained that before entering the glory of God after death, we all need to be purified - since we all die as sinners. And saints were those who had finished this purification, while the other faithful departed (All Souls') were those who were still being worked on in order to be good enough to enter the glory of God.
Now, I can appreciate that we are all sinners at death. We are. But I also believe that the idea of a post-mortem purification process is highly problematic:
First of all, it takes away from the saving acts of our God, completed and fulfilled once and for all in the Incarnation, i.e. in the birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus the Christ.
Secondly, I believe this theology lifts "time" out of the realm of the created into the realm of the uncreated. But "time" has no power in the life to come and hence a "process" of purification connected to our understanding and experience of "time" would take away from God's omniscience...
Thirdly, I wonder if this purification- theology is the result of a creeping Gnostic influence on Christianity. N.T. Wright has written about this extensively, and I recommend his books "For All the Saints" and "Surprised by Hope" on this issue.
So, what to do.
Well, I still do believe that there is a place for the veneration of particular saints in the church. But not because they were better or more valuable or more valued members of the Body of Christ. I believe that the saints we venerate publicly, were touched in a special way by God. God revealed something particular in the lives of these saints about God's reign - and hence venerating these saints ultimately means venerating God's saving acts. Just like in the veneration of an icon we do not worship the created mater of wood and paint, but what the icon signifies, so in the veneration of the saints we do not worship flesh and blood of the saints or their character (and some of these characters were not pleasant...!), but we worship the particular insight into God's love and compassion for us revealed by these saints through their lives, their deaths, or their teachings. The veneration of saints ultimately is a worship of God who became one of us, flesh of our flesh in Jesus Christ. (And this, btw, might even leave space for the veneration of relics, something I have been contemplating more intentionally since reading (of all books!) Phil Rickman's "Midwinter of the Spirit" ...)
Yet, All Saints' should not be an observation of these "public saints." That's why we have feast days.
So then what do? What to do with All Saints' and All Souls'?
Well, with all due respect, I believe that the practise of St Paul's Anglican Church in Vancouver's West End might teach the Church Catholic a thing or two about this...
At St Paul's we celebrate both feats days with gusto - and with a a bit of a twist.
On All Saints' (usually celebrated on the Sunday following 1 November), we celebrate exactly what it says: All saints. We will commemorate all the faithful departed, great and small, known and unknown, and particularly those members of the Body of Christ we love and see no more. But that is it: it is the faithful departed throughout the centuries. And we reunite with them at the altar during the celebration of the Eucharist.
On All Souls' we also celebrate the Eucharist, but it is truly a Thanksgiving for all the faithful departed, regardless of wether they were members of God's people, or wether their faith was known to God alone, or wether they had no faith at all. And we provide space in our Labyrinth for people to come and mark those who have gone before us and who have marked our lives. There is no judgement. None. We leave this to God. There is only thanksgiving - mixed with grief and sadness for lost human lives, all created and loved by God. All Souls' therefore equally becomes a celebration that reflects its name. It becomes a celebration of the Creator of all souls. And in this way I think it can become an opening for the church to offer generous hospitality, to welcome strangers and friends alike, to serve those on the "in" and those on the "out", and to offer in a celebratory and honouring way our own insights about death and resurrection. It is quite a wonderful experience. People bring pictures, walk the Labyrinth, and write prayers of remembrance. The Labyrinth is bathed in a soft light of candles and, I believe and trust, also bathed in the compassionate, consoling, and comforting embrace of the Holy Spirit.
In this way, both All Saints' and All Souls' still have a place in the life of our church - without becoming complicit with unbiblical teachings.
This year, we once again, went all out for both All Saints' and All Souls'. But it was particularly special as we baptised Arash, a refugee from Iran, who had come to discover life in Canada. And he did - in more than one way.
And this is why I decided to celebrate his baptism in grand style. In celebration of the abundance of God's life and love, I used a whole bucket of water that I poured over Arash (see above). It was a great celebration! And reminded me once again what a privilege and honour it is to serve in God's vineyard.
