A Pastoral Letter from Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop of York
As we approach the end of October, pumpkins, ghosts and ghouls clutter and decorate shop windows.
But as the world dresses up for Halloween, we in the church are invited to contemplate our humanity and our mortality in a different way. All Saints’ Day (celebrated on 1 November), invites us to look beyond our own lives, and see how our story today continues the many, many stories of the saints and beloved disciples and faithful pilgrims who have gone before us.
All Saints is followed by the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed (All Souls) – a reminder that all lives are precious. Just as this brought comfort in the aftermath of WW1, so it brings comfort to us, too, as we ponder the horrors and the war and the injustice that is present in the world. But All Saints’ and All Souls’ isn’t a time to focus on death in a morbid fearful way; because as followers of Jesus in speaking of death we remember the hopeful promise of everlasting life.
And we find comfort in our hope. And in our comfort we find meaning.
For as we remember the saints and indeed all those who have died in the faith of Christ, we remember how we are called to live. For we are called to be God’s holy people; and to live our lives in a way that reflects God’s grace and mercy; lives that speak of resurrection, of life arising from the dust of death.
Just as God called the great saints, so God calls each one of us to share in the ministry of the Good News, and we are reminded again and again that this is not our ministry alone. We follow the examples of the saints. We are called to be saints ourselves.