Collect for Trinity 21 and All Saints Day
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Help us to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Holy God, you have called witnesses from every nation and revealed your glory in their lives. Grant to us the same faith and love that, following their example, we may be sustained by their fellowship and rejoice in their triumph; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Thessalonians 2: 1-8
John 1: 1-14
What Hallowtide, or ‘Hallowmas’ is: A ‘Triduum’, or ‘Three days.’
Beginning on All Hallow’s Eve: the evening before All Hallows day – a vigil of prayer, fasting and preparation for the feast.
All Hallows, or ‘All Saints’: a time of feasting and celebration of the victory and life won through Christ and those Saints and Martyrs who have kept the faith and through whom His church has been built.
All Souls: A day to remember all who have gone before, especially friends and family, with gifts of apples and ‘soulcakes’ (usually filled with sweet spices and fruit, decorated with the sign of the cross before baking) being given as alms.
Hallowtide celebrates the light of Christ that will support and shine through the dark days of Winter.
What Hallowmas is not:
Samhain: a Pagan religious festival and in many Celtic traditions, New Year’s day. While not sharing their belief, we respect those who are sincere.
As opposed to:
Halloween: An American import during which people make shedloads of money by selling tat, normally made of unrecyclable and indestructible plastic, and during which children are encouraged to beg for money with menaces to buy tooth-rotting sweets made of 100% artificial ingredients.
And worse, it has increasingly become an excuse for an insidious excuse for darkness and propagation of evil. Violent and horrific media encourages naïve people to believe that ‘it’s only a bit of fun’ when it plainly isn’t.
Experience shows, however, that addressing the above directly isn’t all that effective – if people have no appreciation from a Christian perspective, they dismiss our opinion without understanding what we say. Instead, the way to defeat the darkness is to be the light that darkness can never overcome. And love is the vehicle to shine that light.
Hallowmas is a season we should not ignore, but instead celebrate as a festival of light, in the beauty of Autumn colours and enjoying a time for creation to rest in peace. Halloween, in modern times, has become the embodiment of darkness. As Christians, we must have no part of it.
Previous Posts
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His reply is clear.
“You”, He says.
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Praying Together December 7th 2025
By your grace we have the gift of the Scriptures. With the help your grace, may we listen deeply to what you want to say to each one of us. May we know your gifts of endurance, encouragement and hope, so that not only our lips but also our lives may be a song in praise of your mercy.
Praying Together November 30th November 2025
The significance of the Themes and Candles we light during the Advent Season.
Praying Together 23rd November 2025
We celebrate the beginning of the story in Advent – but before we do, it is equally important to celebrate the final act of Coronation. The Gospel proclaims that Jesus is King.
Praying Together 16th November 2025
In ways, the Christian Journey is like a race – a Marathon, not a sprint. The key is endurance, Jesus says. There will be mountains to climb, tears and heartache in the depths of your soul, and it will sometimes feel like it’s impossible to carry on. But the world will continue, and end only in God’s good time.
Praying Together 9th November 2025
Every selfless act honours our Christ. In Him, we are one. Whoever we are. We are all His family, and violence against each other is violence against Him.
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Praying Together 19th October 2025
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Praying Together 12th October 2025
We live in comfort, in safety, in freedom, accepted in our community. I wonder how often we send a Thank you to the One who sets us free?
Praying Together 5th October 2025
In community we can support each other in love and fellowship and build one another up. And plough on. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.