This year we as a church community have suffered the loss of a number of long standing and highly respected members, including Sarah Knight one of our churchwardens and Barbara Sidwell, President of the Friends of the Music. For my part, in addition, I have also lost two friends and most importantly, my dear mother.
Prompted by this, I added my mother’s name to those to be read out and decided to make the effort to attend the service. I had no pre-conceived ideas about its form or content and perhaps that enhanced its special nature. Fr. Stephen gave a moving and reflective sermon and subsequently read out the names of the departed. It is only then that memories of the dead become alive and I found myself calling to mind people who had died years ago and whom I had not commemorated by name.
Two memorial candle holders were placed below the chancel steps, each containing a large central candle which Fr Stephen explained he would light and then invite us to come forward and light a candle to those named. It was most moving in its simplicity and solemn beauty. The candles’ glow enhanced by the darkness outside.
T
he choir sang canticles by Gibbons (2nd service) – perfect in the context of the Book of Common Prayer – and the anthem Justorum animae Stanford): Justorum animae in manu Dei sunt, et non tanget illos tormentum malitiae: visi sunt occulis insapientium mori, illi autem sunt in pace.
The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of malice shall not touch them: in the sight of the unwise they seemed to die, but they are in peace.’ Amen.
Beryl Dowsett
All Souls Service
Beryl Dowsett