On Nov. 2, one week from this coming Sunday, we will have our annual All Souls service. At this service every year we name members of our church community who have died in the last year as well as close family members of congregants. For me, this has come to be one of the most moving services we have every year. It is a tender and precious time. 

If you’d like to submit names to be included you’ll find a link to send later in this message. 

The church is a community of memory and hope. Honoring the lives of beloveds when they pass is an important thing we do. I’m aware that when a death is announced on a Sunday in the service, whether we knew the person or not, that in the naming we remember the losses we have known in our lives. And of course in the naming of many kinds of life passages, from birth to death,  we are reminded that the church is a place to recognize all of life’s chapters. It is a reminder that one day our name will be part of this annual litany. 

This fall we have been talking a lot about history at the church. We’ve talked about the founders who began our church, the women of the Ladies Sewing Society. How their vision was the beginning of our congregation’s story. And from one generation to another people have built and sustained the community. This annual recognition is one way to tell the story of the congregation year by year by year.

I’m humbled to just think about all the people who have been part of that story. All those who have contributed in ways large and small. Just how did this or that tradition begin? Why is it that we do … fill in the blank … that way? How is it that some lessons need to be learned over and over again? 

If you’d like to include the name of a loved one in the annual litany, send the name (and pronunciation if necessary) to remembrance@firstunitarianportland.org. If your loved one’s name has been mentioned in parish concerns it should be on the list already. But you are most welcome to submit a name just to make sure. In addition to members, you are welcome to submit names of close family members who have died. Please submit names by Wednesday, Oct. 29. 

Once a year we take time to recognize all the gifts that make our community what it is. In the service we will say together “We Remember Them.”

Blessings,

Rev. Tom