Sun., Oct 29: Fauré's Requiem, Necrology, & Altars of Remembrance

“For to your faithful people, O Lord, life is changed, not ended; and when our mortal body lies in death, there is prepared for us a dwelling place eternal in the heavens.”

The Proper Preface for Burial says much about our orientation towards death as Christians, and these precious words have spoken to generations of those who have loved, and lost, beloved partners, family and friends. 

It is neither impolite nor imprudent to consider how death impacts our living, and how the death of those we love and see no longer implicates our faith. Our Book of Common Prayer reminds us that the Burial of the Dead is essentially an Easter service-- because of Jesus’ resurrection, we too shall be raised to new life. The joy and thanksgiving we hold for the lives of those we have lost, and the grief we hold following (or anticipating) their death are held in one hand in the Church. We love and grieve at the same time. We celebrate and mourn. We offer both our thanks and our deep loss to God. 

All Souls’ Day is when we remember our dead as a whole community—not alone, or in a singular burial liturgy, but as the whole Body of Christ. It is the privilege of the Church to hold both joy and grief together and name our hope: that life is not ended, but changed when we die. 

Our October 29 liturgies will feel necessarily different as we honor the dead, our grief, our love, and profess our faith in the resurrection together. Two aspects of our liturgy will be notably different in particular:

Requiem
10 am & 5 pm

The Trinity Choirs will sing Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem during our 10 am and 5 pm Services of Holy Eucharist (the 8 am service will remain spoken only, as usual). 

Fauré once told an interviewer:

“It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience.” The composer also described the work as being “dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest."

All Souls Necrology
8 am, 10 am & 5 pm

On All Souls' Day, we will remember all those from the parish who have died since last All Souls’ Day in 2022, offering their names during each of our three services of Holy Eucharist We welcome names of those near and dear to the parish who have died in any year, reminding ourselves of the thin space we hold between this life and the next. 

Please add the full names of those who have died to the linked form by 3 pm on Thursday, 10/26, and we will offer them in our worship on Sunday, 10/29. Please fill out one form per individual.

After the 10 am service and before the 5 pm service we will pray “Altar of Remembrance” devotions, sharing photos, mementos, and stories of those we carry in our hearts. 
11:15 am & 4 pm

We invite you to share small, framed pictures or mementos of those you love and see no longer. We can accept these at the Parish House desk until Fri., 10/27 at 5 pm, and then again on Sun., 10/29 until 9 am. All objects must be labeled on the back with name, phone, and email information for the submitter. We ask that pictures be duplicates of any valuable or precious originals and that all submissions be wrapped for protection.

We will keep the altar all week through All Saints', and items can be picked up on Sun., Nov. 5 following each service.