From the Rector

Dear Friends in Christ,

One of the criticisms of Halloween, in some Christian quarters, is that it celebrates demons, witches, zombies, and the like. It is as if by having those beasties and creepies come out that somehow we’re acknowledging their scary reality. The thing is, we needn’t look to costumes or makeup or fake teeth and plastic claws to know that evil is real—that it comes out from time to time to cause mischief and terror.

The real lesson of Halloween is that while such evils may make their noise and inspire fright through the night, they flee with the light of day. We make a mockery of them. We dress and imitate them not because they are so powerful and frightening but because of the very opposite—these are things that we can mock knowing that love casts out fear.

Death is not the end so we mock its powers that night. That night is celebrated just on the eve of All Saints. On All Saints, we give thanks for the witness and testimony of those throughout the history of the Church who have borne witness to the eternal love of Christ—to his victory over evil and death.

The next day, the Church marks All Souls’ on which we pray for the departed and give thanks for their lives and pray for God to help them go from strength to strength in his love—for their lives are changed not ended.

So this Halloween, we will mock the powers of death for they have no hold over us. We will mark the witness of the Saints in light who have proven the power of love. We will give thanks for the departed as we entrust them to that same love.

Here’s a bit of extra credit that might serve you well on Jeopardy! some day. Orange and black are the traditional colors associated with All Hallows (Halloween). This is because in a requiem mass, such as we celebrate on All Souls’, there is an old tradition of using unbleached candles which show as orange in the candlelight (instead of the white of the normally used bleached candles). The black comes from the black vestments worn at those All Souls’ services. So churches would have been decked in orange and black for the solemnities where the veil between this life and the next seemed most thin.

Anyhow, if that bit of trivia wins you Jeopardy!, don’t forget it’s stewardship season!

Someone once said that the point of dragon stories is not that dragons exist. The point is that dragons can be defeated.

Let us give thanks this Halloween, All Saints, and All Souls’ that things that go bump in the night have no real power beyond that of demanding some candy! No doubt, we see evil at work, but it’s an evil whose defeat is promised and purposed in Christ.

Let us also give thanks for those who have gone before us to find that eternal light which shines in the darkness, which the darkness shall not and cannot overcome.

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Robert