All Souls Day

The Gathering

        Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you
All   and also with you

Hymn

Introductory Sentence

For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 1 Thes 4:14

Silence

         Blessed be God 

All    Blessed be God’s reign forever. Amen.

Call to confession

God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. As we acknowledge our human frailty, we call to mind our sins of word, deed and omission, and confess them before God our Father.

Silence

Confession

         You raise the dead to life in the Spirit:
         Lord, have mercy.
All    Lord, have mercy.

          You bring pardon and peace to the broken in heart:
          Christ, have mercy.
All     Christ, have mercy.

          You make one by your Spirit the torn and divided:
          Lord, have mercy.
All     Lord, have mercy.

May almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you your sins, and bring you to everlasting life. Amen.

The Gloria

The Collect
Let us pray for the peace and the wellbeing of the whole church

Silent

Everlasting God, our maker and redeemer, grant us, with all the faithful departed, the sure benefits of your Son’s saving passion and glorious resurrection, that, in the last day, when you gather up all things in Christ, we may with them enjoy the fullness of your promises; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The New Testament Lesson

Hymn

Gospel 

All     Glory to you O Lord

Silence 

          This is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ 
All     Praise to you O Christ 

Sermon 

The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed
All proceed to the cemetery. Families / persons may light a candle from the flame of hope (Easter Candle) and place it at the grave of their loved ones.

           You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power.
All      For you have created all things, and by your will they have their being.

            You are worthy, O Lamb, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed for God saints                 from every tribe and language and nation.
All       You have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God, and they will reign                     with you on earth.

Names of those to be remembered are read
After the names are read candles are placed at the grave of loved ones.

            This is the will of him that sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me,
All       and I will raise them up at the last day.

            Lord God, creator of all, you have made us creatures of this earth, but have also promised us a                share in life eternal. According to your promises, may all who have died in the peace of Christ                 come with your saints to the joys of your kingdom, where there will be neither sorrow nor pain,             but life everlasting.
All       Alleluia. Amen.

            Grant to us, Lord God, to trust you not for ourselves alone, but for those also whom we love and             who are hidden from us by the shadow of death; that, as we believe your power to have raised                our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, so may we trust your love to give eternal life to all who                 believe in him; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy                 Spirit, one God, now and forever. 

All      Amen. 

All return into the church and the service continues

        Jesus says: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give you.            Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

        The peace of the risen Lord be always with you
All   and also with you. 

Hymn 

Proper preface 

And now we give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord. In him who rose from the dead our hope of resurrection dawned. The sting of death has been removed by the glorious promise of his risen life. 

The Lord’s Prayer 

Uniting our prayers with the whole company of heaven, as our Saviour taught us, so we pray 

All Our Father in heaven …

Prayer after Communion 

God of love, may the death and resurrection of Christ which we have celebrated in this Eucharist bring us, with the faithful departed, into the peace of your eternal home. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our rock and our salvation, to whom be glory for time and for eternity. Amen. 

Blessing 
The God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, make you perfect in every good work to do his will; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit be with you all this day and for evermore. Amen. 

          Neither death nor life can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. 
All     Thanks be to God. 

Hymn