laudable Practice

It is the day after All Saints' Day.  But, no, this is not All Souls' Day.  The classical Prayer Book calendar has no place for such a commemoration, for sound, coherent theological reasons .  The faithful departed are not a category apart from those whom we celebrated yesterday, "thy blessed Saints" who have entered into "those unspeakable joys, which thou hast prepared for them that unfeignedly love thee". This conviction finds its defining expression in the commemoration of the faithful departed in the Prayer for the Church Militant: And we also bless thy holy Name for all thy servants departed this life in thy faith and fear; beseeching thee to give us grace so to follow their good examples, that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom. The quiet, abiding hope of these words, entirely without urgent petition or fearful concern, encapsulates the Church's prayer at the graveside , quoting Revelation 14:13: "for they rest from their l...

On 2nd November last year , I suggested that the exclusion of All Souls' Day from 1662 flowed from a coherent, meaningful expression of the one eschatological hope shared by all the faithful - living and departed - in the Communion of Saints.  This being so, 1662 saw "a day set apart for particular, direct prayers for the faithful departed ... distorting our perception of the 'one communion and fellowship'".   While I remain convinced that this provides a coherent rationale for the absence of All Souls' Day from 1662 (to put it more bluntly, this absence is certainly not a deficiency), this year  - prompted by some pastoral considerations - I want to revisit the argument in light of the collects proposed for what the Scottish Prayer 1929 called 'The Commemoration of All Souls', the Canadian BCP 1962 calls 'The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed', and the Prayer Book Proposed in 1928 termed 'All Souls': O Lord, the maker and redee...