Observing All Saints Day - prayer, communion, music

Today at church (Elba United Methodist), Pastor Stanley Carter read the names of our departed "saints" for the past year. This was followed by silence while we remembered them and others outside our church. The choir then sang a choral arrangement of "The Old Rugged Cross". After a short message, we had communion with small groups going to the altar rail to participate in the Lord's supper.

We came home and had lunch and then went back to the church for our annual Charge Conference with our new Supt. in charge. This is where we get assignments for the coming year. Jim has been appointed as Chairmen of the Trustees. He will be on the Administrative Council, Financial Committee and is currently the church webmaster. http://www.elbaumc.org/   I resigned my post as trustee since we didn't both need to be on that committee. I am in a new "position" - membership secretary. This coming year I plan to put all church members, addresses, and other info on an Excel spreadsheet. Two floods in the 1990's destroyed many of the local church records. I hope to dig deep and try to update our membership. This will take a lot of time and energy but so vital to our church in the future.

We had to leave the conference before it was over in order to take James home to stay with a sitter while Jim and I traveled to Dothan to attend a concert at the Episcopal Church of the Nativity on Holly Lane. The church choir celebrated the lives of the departed through the singing of John Rutter's Requiem. It was also important for the church since they were celebrating the life of Pat Byrne, a member of the choir for almost 40 years.

Jim was in our church choir that presented the Requiem when we lived in Albany, GA and this time he got to listen to someone else sing. It was a combination of Latin and English. Rutter's Requiem was a beautiful way to spend All Saints Day. A friend of ours from Enterprise, Rex Everage, was singing in the choir and invited us to attend.

At the beginning of the program there was a beautiful violion solo by Jenny Gregoir, concertmaster for Mobile and Gulf Coast symphonies. She played Ralph Vaughan Williams "Lark Ascending". I loved the bassoon music, the harp, flute, violins and cello - plus others.

The featured soloist Fay Schiffer, from Enterprise, was magnificent. Our friend Rex confided to us that he thought she raised pigs! The strings played an encore at the end - uplifting music after listening to the beautiful Requiem. We were invited to stay afterwards for a nice reception and to meet the choir and musicians.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and the church was filled with dancing colors with the sun shining throught the beautiful stained glass windows.

We enjoyed our trip back to Elba as we watched the big bright sun going down in the western sky. It got dark before we reached the city limits of Elba, AL.

All Saints Day 2008 was a busy, but memorable one.