Director of Communications Ken Garfield shares a reflection.

We marked All Saints Sunday together on November 4, lighting a candle and tolling the church bell for the 42 church members (and loved ones) we lost this past year. It's a tender, inspiring service, but it's painful, too, even thought we believe there is more to life than what we know here. I scanned the list of names and thought about the people with whom I had had a connection, including at least one young woman who died before her time. The woman beside me in the back of the Sanctuary, her eyes welled with tears during the reading of the names, then she left before Amazing Grace closed the service. I noticed she shared a last name, and who knows how many memories, with one of the people listed in the bulletin.
 
Tears, memories, faith, hope, community, all together on this Sunday.

I like how Rev. Shane Page put it: "Today, on All Saints Sunday, we gather to remember those who have gone before us, whose faith has made our belief possible, and who still beckon us forward, reminding us that the grave our culture denies is, for us, the womb of a new creation."

Women's Choir anthem premiere: Arise, My Soul, Arise







Left to right: Director of Music Jimmy Jones, composer Dan Forrest, Music Associate and Organist Dr. Patrick Scott

More from the Blessing of the Animals

































Dr. Howell and Jim Noble Lead Dialogue on Hospitality




Dr. Howell and restaurateur Jim Noble (shown above) kicked off the hospitality series. He talked about his faith and the restaurant business to 300-plus in Jubilee Hall.

The Conventions: A Common Witness
 
Dr. Howell authored this prayer, which appeared in The Charlotte Observer and Tampa Tribune, signed by 30 clergy in the two cities.

     In late August and early September, tens of thousands will descend upon Tampa and then Charlotte for the Republican and Democratic Conventions. We clergy welcome our guests.