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| Transition Sunday marks passages in our lives |
|
By
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November 2009 As I write this, the leaves on the tree outside my office window have all turned amber and the bush is a bright red. The falling rain is carrying many of the leaves to the ground. The season is in transition. As a society, we mark this season as a winding down of the year. Halloween gives us a chance to confront the spooky corners of life. Thanksgiving provides a space for gratitude for the blessings of the past year. Within the life of the church, there are special days set aside to remember those who have died. In some traditions, there is a celebration of All Saints Day to honor those who have died. In the Catholic calendar, there is a day called All Souls Day to pray for those who may not yet be in heaven. In the German Evangelical tradition that became part of the United Church of Christ over 50 years ago, there is a feast called Totenfest, or Feast of the Dead. That particular celebration was started in 1816 by Prussian Emperor Fredrick William III as a day to remember that nation's soldiers who had died in the recently concluded Prussian War. Totenfest remains a day in some parts of Germany when families visit the graves of loved ones to clean off the summer flowers and cover the graves with evergreen boughs for the winter, but has never been widely observed in the U.S., where Memorial Day in the spring and Veterans Day in the fall serve that function. When Pastor Bonnie came to Memorial in 1997, the congregation began observing Totenfest on the Sunday before Advent begins – the last Sunday of the traditional church year. She expanded the concept beyond just remembering those who had died in the past year to also include those who were born – taking note of both ends of life. This year, we are going to build on that concept and try to expand that Sunday – which this year is Nov. 22 – to include the all the kinds of transitions people have experienced in the last year. And we will call it “Transition Sunday,” marking not only the transitions in our personal lives, but also the transition in the church year as we start over with the first Sunday of Advent the next week. As in the past, those who have experienced a significant transition in the past year – a birth, a death, a marriage, a divorce, a job found, a job lost, college begun, an empty next created, a graduation – will be invited to light a candle to mark the passage in their lives. If you have a special candle you would like to bring for the occasion, please do so. Transitions are part of the natural flow of life. As a community, we can support one other through the good ones and the hard ones and then remind each other that God’s love is with us through it all. Please join us in doing that on Nov. 22. |