Happy All Saints Day! Hope your Halloween wasn’t too spooky! Most people recognize yesterday as a holiday, but we in the Church recognize today as an important holiday. It’s All Saints Day. “What is all Saints Day?” you ask. Good question…glad you asked. All Saints day is an opportunity for us to recognize and honor all who have gone before us. We think about the Church fathers and mothers who brought the institution to life in the first few centuries of our Christian past, and we also remember the saints of recent years. Each church is blessed with saints that have kept the church alive by supporting it financially, spiritually, and giving of endless hours of time.
When I think of recent saints of the Church, I consider Martin Luther King, Jr. who lost his life in the struggle for equal rights for African Americans, and in truth, all people. I can’t help but think of Mother Teressa who spent her life working for the poor and hungry. And I think also of Ceasar Chavez and the pastors and lay people that walked alongside him as he fought for the rights of farmworkers. Since I am still new to our church, I’m still learning who the saints of Fairview Community Church are…but you can help me by remembering them and sharing their stories. Of course, I know the living saints –who doesn’t? Bea Buchan, Marge Salmassy, Wayne Rash, Martha Blake… the list goes on and on. But you can tell me about those saints of our past who have served our church well! Those saints ought to be memorialized!
This Sunday, we have an opportunity to share a little about the Saints in our lives, both the Saints of Fairview, and the Saints who’ve touched your lives outside of Fairview. During Sunday’s All Saints Service you will be given a chance to light a candle and say the name of a saint whose made an impact on your life and is no longer living among us on earth, but gathered with the Saints in God’s loving arms.
Don’t forget the time change this Sunday! If you came at 9am I’d certainly have fun seeing you, but if you want to be at church at the right time, be sure to set your clocks an hour back. I’ll miss the daylight, but I’m sure we’ll all appreciate an extra hour of sleep!
See you on Sunday!
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The Wide, Wide World of Theology!
For all the saints
Whom no one thought to name
No litany of bliss
For their praise proclaims
For the homely saints
No halo aglow
Favored by the Lord
But to us so so
For the ruined saints
Who craved no boardroom glee
But offered their arms
And gave without fee
For the tattered saints
Who found no rest at home
But served in patient woe
And shrank in hearts alone
For the silent saints
Captured by their pain
Offering it to God
For salvation’s gain
For the saint unseen
By power or by peer
The crownless heir of love
Raised on Christ’s bier
The lumpen hump of flesh
Draped across bench
Whose spit is his smile
And bouquet his stench
For the blithering saint
Whose strings of words bemuse
His blank stare runs counter
To the civil use
For the stunted saints
No worldly stature given
Graced by a shrug
And through neglect shriven
For the hidden saints
Caught in God’s eye
Reflections of God’s love
In ordinary guise
The humble face of saints
Uncanonized
Lies in the dust
By God only prized
For these great saints
We have yet to know
Celebrate today!
Feast on crow.
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God of the past, present and future,
We pray for those who came before us,
Paving the Christian path for us today,
We give thanks for the lives they lived,
and their willingness to think forward to consider us and our lives today.
May we be the saints of tomorrow.
Grateful for those who have guided us, and continue to leave their mark upon our lives.
Amen.
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Announcements
New Member Inquiry Meeting
This Sunday 8:45 in the Pastor’s Office
If you are interested in learning more about the church and are considering becoming a member,
Join us before church on Sunday!
If this time doesn’t work for you, but you are interested, just hit reply and let me know!
The Vein of Gold
Facilitated Adult Christian Education Presents:
by Veda Atchley and Martha Blake
This is an 8 week growth group designed to open ourselves up to the Spirit.
Come and find your creative side, share, and grow with others!
You do not have to be at every session to participate in the group.
The session begins following the service and will go for about an hour.
Contact Veda Atchley, Martha Blake or hit reply to this email for more information.
Divine on the Vine
WORD AND WINE ON WEDNESDAYS!
Join us Wednesday at 6:30pm for wine and cheese and divine conversation!
This week we’ll meet at Martha Blake’s Home
275 Albert Place, Costa Mesa 92627
In memory,
Sarah
