by 4G Core Team member Breen Sipes
In this mini season between All Saints Sunday and Christ the King Sunday, why not extend the celebration of the saints for the whole month? Many churches celebrated All Saints Sunday on November 7, which often includes remembrances of the names of those who have died in the past year, sometimes accompanied by the lighting of a candle or the tolling of a bell.
In one congregation I served, we made a birch tree “Tree of Life,” and hung beautiful copper leaves on the bare branches, one for each of those who had died, on All Saints Sunday. The next Sunday, we hung leaves on the branches for those who had been baptized in the past year in honor of those who had joined our ranks as the living saints of God. The third Sunday, the congregation was invited forward to hang leaves on the branches in honor of all of those, living or dead, who had been saints in their own lives. By the end of this Sunday, the tree had more leaves than we could count! On Christ the King Sunday, we capped off the season by celebrating Christ as King, and placed a crown of thorns in the midst of the branches of our Tree of Life. On the first Sunday of Advent, the tree was replaced with the manger in a visual reminder of the life cycle of the tree, and the church.
How can you extend the celebration of All Saints into this month? How many generations surround us in this great cloud of witnesses? How can you share the stories of the saints in your lives?
Find more resources for celebrating All Saints in a Cross+Generational way here: https://goodgodideas.wordpress.com/2018/10/31/all-saints-prayer-stations/
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