All Saints Day

All Saints Sunday

The photos of our beloved ones who are gathered around the throne at our altar today.

"...and so with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven..."

A LITANY FOR ALL SAINTS  

We sing:
For all the saints, who from their labor rest,
Who thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, alleluia!

Leader: All powerful and ever-living God, today we rejoice in the holy ones of every time and place. May their prayers and praises glorify you forever, 

Holy ones present at our beginnings:
People: Stand here beside us!

Abraham and Sarah; Isaac and Rebecca; Jacob and Rachel and Leah; covenant receivers, forebears of all God’s people:
Stand here beside us!

Elizabeth and Simeon; Joseph, Eunice and Monica; models of the love and care of children:
Stand here beside us!

John the baptizer, proclaimer of the Lord's coming:
Stand here beside us!

We sing:
Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might:
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, the one true Light.
Alleluia, alleluia!

Leader:    Holy ones who carried the gospel to other lands:
Stand here beside us!

Thomas the questioner; Paul of Tarsus; Augustine  of Canterbury, apostle to the English; Henry Melchiar Muhlenberg; Justus Falckner; all travelers who carried the Gospel to distant places:
Stand here beside us!

We sing:
O may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old
And win, with them, the victor's crown of gold.
Alleluia, alleluia! 

Leader: Holy ones who lived their lives caring for others:
Stand here beside us!

Peter, the Rock, one-time denier of the Lord; all faithful shepherds of the Master's flock:
Stand here beside us!

Mary Magdalene, the Tower, anointer of the Lord's feet; Luke the physician; Florence Nightingale; Albert Schweitzer; Saint Teresa of Calcutta; all who brought hands of healing to the sick and suffering:
Stand here beside us!

Nicholas Winton, rescuer of Jewish children from the Holocaust; Fred Rogers, whose neighborhood knew no limits;  Eric Carle and Beverly Cleary, writers for the ears and hearts of children:
Stand here beside us!

We sing:
O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia, alleluia!.

 Leader: Holy ones who made the proclaiming of God's love a work of art:
Stand here beside us!

Johann Sebastian Bach; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; Ralph Vaughan Williams; Luciano Pavarotti; Loretta Lynn whose twangs sang truth; all who sang the Creator's praises in the language of the soul:
Stand here beside us!

David and the Psalmists; John Milton, sketcher of Paradise; William Blake, imaginer of Jerusalem; George Herbert, priest and metaphysical poet; all poets of the heavenly vision:
Stand here beside us!

Zaccheus the tree-climber; Benedict of Nursia, founder of western monasticism; Brother Lawrence; Therese of Lisieux, the little flower; all teachers of holy simplicity:
Stand here beside us!

We sing:
And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, alleluia!

Leader: Holy ones driven by the justice and mercy of God:
Stand here beside us!

Amos the prophet, who held up the plumbline; John Wycliffe, who brought the Scripture to the common folk; Jan Huss, the first reformer;  Martin Luther, who could do no other than to stand; John XXIII, visionary pope; Pope Francis who loves the marginalized; all who kept the Church ever-reforming:
Stand here beside us!

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin; Augustine of Hippo; Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin; Paul Tillich; Frederick Buechner; all who saw God at work and wrote down what they saw:
Stand here beside us!

John, the seer of Patmos; Anthony of the desert; Julian, the anchoress of Norwich; Hildegarde, the sybil of the Rhine; Meister Eckardt; Bernadette of Lourdes; all who were called to see the Master's face:
Stand here beside us!

Johnny Appleseed, the mad planter of Eden; Sojourner Truth, pilgrim of justice; Benedict Joseph Labre, priest and panhandler; Nicholas, bishop of Myra and giver of secret gifts; all whose love for God was beyond containment:
Stand here beside us!

We sing:
The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors cometh rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blest.
Alleluia, alleluia 

Leader: Holy ones in modern times who strove tirelessly for peace:
Stand here beside us!

Elijah Cummings, John Lewis, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, workers for justice;
Stand here beside us!

Queen Elizabeth II, royal head of the Church of England who sought God’s guidance throughout her reign; Madeline Albright, ambassador to the United Nations; Desmond Tutu, bishop and theologian: 
Stand here beside us!

Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Kirk who worked together to end apartheid and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize; Mikhail Gorbachev, destroyer of walls and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize; all for whom peace was a noble endeavor:
Stand here beside us!

Leader: Holy ones who died in witness to the Christ, martyrs all:
Stand here beside us!

Stephen, the first martyr, stoned in Jerusalem; Justin, Ignatius and Polycarp, who refused to worship Caesar; Perpetua and Felicity, torn by beasts in the arena; Maximilian Kolbe and Edith Stein, put to death at Auschwitz; Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran pastor who dared to challenge the Third Reich, executed at Flossenburg:
Stand here beside us!

James Reeb, Jonathan Daniels, Michael Schwerner, Medgar Evers, Viola Liuzzo, martyrs for civil rights; Martin Luther King, Jr., shot in Memphis; Oscar Romero, shot in San Salvador;
Stand here beside us!

George Floyd, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Philando Castile, Breonna Taylor; shot and killed:
Stand here beside us!

Martyrs of Rome, of Leone, of Japan, of Eastern Equatorial Africa, of Uganda, of Melanesia; martyrs everywhere:
Stand here beside us!

Law enforcement officers killed in the defense of their communities
Stand here beside us!

All the innocents victims of terrorism and war -- those in Israel, those in Gaza, those in Ukraine
Stand here beside us!

All the children of Abraham, those of Isaac and Ishmael; all of their descendants; all adopted as heirs of the promise:
Stand here beside us!

We sing:

But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of Glory passes on his way.
Alleluia, alleluia!

Leader: Holy ones of every time and place:
Stand here beside us!

Glorious company of heaven:
Stand here beside us!

All runners of the holy race:
Stand here beside us!

Those from our community of faith:
Immie Beck
John Shaw
John LeMond
John Fico
. . . . and those we name in our hearts or we now name aloud:

(The people call out names of saints from other times and places.)

Leader: Great cloud of witnesses:
Stand here beside us!

We sing:
From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
Singing to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, alleluia!

Leader: Jesus our Savior creator of all:
Stand here beside us!

Jesus our Savior, redeemer of all:
Stand here beside us!

Jesus our Savior, sanctifier of all:
Stand here beside us!

Jesus our Savior, the alpha and the omega, 
The beginning and the end:
Stand here beside us!

Leader: Almighty God, by the power of your Holy Spirit, you have raised up saints who have gone before us. We give you thanks for the witness of their lives of faith through the ages. And now as they rejoice around your heavenly throne, we join our praise and worship with theirs in one eternal song. May we follow their example of faithful living that our daily lives may be a testimony to your abundant and eternal grace; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting.
Amen.

We sing:
For all the saints, who from their labor rest,
Who thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, alleluia!