Held forever in love and honour

About this episode

The episode discusses the significance of commemorating All Saints Sunday and All Souls Day, emphasizing the importance of remembering those who have influenced our lives.

Whenever this time of year comes around, I make sure to keep two commemorations rather than one. Sadly, many churches across the Church of Ireland will only keep All Saints Sunday and disdain the keeping of All Souls Day which is an ancient part of Allhallowstide – the season of remembering, coming at the end of the year, the dying of the year one might say – before it gives way to Advent – the time of preparing for the new.Perhaps it's a hangover from the past, the fear that it was associated with Purgatory and indulgences, concepts that the Reformers rejected, but also possibly tainted by a certain tendency towards negative self-definition – we don’t do it – because they do.But at ‘All Souls’ we remember people who are not particularly famous, nor were they necessarily examples to many, but we lovingly remember those who are so inextricably linked with us that they may well have been amongst the most important influences in our lives.Few of us have ever been spared the pain of loss, sometimes repeatedly. And at ‘All Souls’ we can especially remember that this is a burden of human mortality that each one of us carries, one that we should not and need not carry alone.And then at…

Topics covered

• All Saints Sunday
• All Souls Day
• remembrance
• Christian faith
• mortality

Keywords

• Allhallowstide
• Purgatory
• indulgences
• loss
• human mortality

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: All Souls’

More episodes of Think Question Believe

• Living for tomorrow - today · December 14, 2025 · 22 min
• Turning the world upside down · December 10, 2025 · 22 min
• Rescuing Jesus · December 6, 2025 · 10 min
• Finding the time to pause · December 3, 2025 · 12 min
• The Crisis Ahead · December 2, 2025 · 11 min
• The road less travelled · September 8, 2025 · 11 min