| | Weekly Dispatch, October 30th, 2019 |
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| |  | | Special Dates to Remember | - Daylight Savings Starts This Sunday, November 3rd!
- All Hallows Eve Service followed by Trunk or Treat, October 31st at 6:30 p.m.
- Eagle & Child, Monday, November 4th at 6:30 p.m.
- Mission Council, Tuesday, November 5th at 6:30 p.m.
- 9:00 a.m. Prayer Group meets again on Sunday, November 24th.
October Birthdays- David Beer - Oct 5th
- Marsha Boston - Oct 6th
- Leighton Boquist - Oct 14th
- Megan Tennant - Oct 18th
- Elizabeth Beer - Oct 25th
- Dale Boston - Oct 26th
| | Of all the feast days in our liturgical calendar, All Hallows' Eve may be the most controversial and least understood. Like many of our annual celebrations, it has been taken over by commercial interests and twisted so that it brings with it a sense of foreboding at the specter of ghosts and ghouls and all manner of frightful things.
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This is unfortunate, since "Halloween" actually has Christian origins. The early christians were a heavily persecuted community, and many of the faithful were martyred for standing firm by their convictions. The great North African theologian, Tertullian, famously remarked that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," and he was not exaggerating. Christianity developed and thrived in a hostile world because so many believers remained faithful, even when it meant suffering and sometimes death.
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By the fourth century, there were so many Christian martyrs to remember that church leaders began setting aside a special day to celebrate their collective witness. They called this day "All Saints," and the evening before became known as "All Hallows' Eve." Hallows simply means "holy ones" in Old English, so All Hallows' Eve is a celebration of those christians whose faithfulness carried the gospel down through the ages even at times when it might have been stamped out by persecution.
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Not only is celebrating faithful christians of past generations biblical (see Hebrews 12:1), failing to acknowledge that we are part of a great "communion of saints" would amount to cutting ourselves off from the vast majority who make up the "body of christ." It would be unbiblical if we did not recognize that we are members of a much greater body that spans the ages. If you would like to read more about the history of All Hallows' Eve, I recommend following this link. And if you are interested in a distinctively biblical and Anglican account, check out Fr. Sean's blog post below.
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Most importantly, join us tomorrow evening at 6:30 p.m. as we celebrate All the Saints whose lives have pointed not to themselves, but to Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Savior.
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| Have a blessed All Hallows' Eve! |
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| |  | How You Can Pray This Week If you were not in church on Sunday and would like to see the weekly prayer requests, please send an email to Fr. Sean Ewing at frsean@stjohnsanglican.org.
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| Interested in a simple way to pray the daily office from the Book of Common Prayer? Follow this link for text and audio versions of morning, noon, and evening prayer. The site is hosted by our friend, Fr. Michael Jarrett. |
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| Our Latest Sermon |  | | St. John's is a community where ordinary people are changed by the grace and goodness of Jesus Christ to become faithful members of His church and humble servants to a hurting world. We remain grounded in Jesus Christ by centering our life together in His Word & Sacraments. Click on the link below to hear our latest sermon. |
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| For All the Saints: All Saints' Day (November 1st) |  | | Why All Saints' Day? A number of objections to the observation of All Saints' Day might be put forward. With the abundance of feast days already dedicated to particular saints, is a collective feast day really necessary? Given the excesses of prayer to the saints, the devotion to relics, and elevating the saints on a pedestal of super-human holiness that … |
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| | Questions?| If you have questions about any of the content contained in this email or want to learn more about St. John's Anglican Church, please let us know. You can fill out a form at this link, and you will receive a response from Fr. Bryan Hollon or Fr. Sean Ewing. |
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