Reflections on the 2022 All Souls Luminaria service

St Catharine's was proud to host its annual All Souls Luminaria service on Sunday 30 October. For many years it has been the custom of the College to hold an All Souls-tide Memorial Service in the College Chapel to remember those who have died during the previous year. 

All members of the St Catharine's community were welcome to attend and invitations were also extended to the next of kin for recently deceased members of the College. 
 
During the service, a touching homily was delivered by the Dean of Chapel (published below), the names of the departed were read aloud, anthems were sung by the Collge Choir, and there was an opportunity for those present to light a candle in memory of those they have loved and lost. The service was livestreamed for anyone not able to attend in person and a recording is available to watch on YouTube. The service has already been watched by 146 viewers online.

Penelope Warner, the wife of the late Dr Francis Warner (1956, English; Honorary Fellow 1999), commented:

"This commemoration of those members of St Catharine’s who have died in the past year was deeply moving and comforting.  The choice of readings and music, the Homily, the lighting of a candle in remembrance, and the silence to reflect and remember the person departed all combined to bring peace and gratitude to those of us mourning our loved ones.  This unique service by the College is one I shall treasure.  It meant a tremendous amount to all those attending.  My heartfelt thanks to you all."

Fede Limpenny, son of the late Robert Limpenny (1952, Economics), said:

"The All Souls service has been a very special and intimate ceremony to remember our Father and celebrate his life. St Catharine’s is a place he cherished the most, that was very important to him and always present in his life. Being in the College chapel gave me a space to deeply connect with my Father and reflect on how much it meant to him. I believe the All Souls is an unique ceremony, of which I felt blessed to have been able to attend and meet Fellows and other families."

His brother Martin Limpenny added:

"The All Souls service was a very special event being able to celebrate and remember our father in a place that meant so much to him. Being there at the same place of prayer where he spent time during College definitely provided  a sense of connection. The service allowed us a unique time for reflection about the time we spent with him and values he taught us. The College had a significant impact on his life and so in a way it did on us as well."

A homily from the Revd Ally Barrett (2019), Dean of Chapel

“The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God.”
“Do not let your hearts be troubled…
in my father’s house there are many dwelling places,
and I go to prepare a place for you.”

These words from our readings are full of hope, full of promise.

They are words that have brought comfort to generation upon generation, for hundreds, even thousands, of years. They speak to that profound human need for a place of safety and belonging.

As human beings we look for ways to belong. Places to call home, where our very existence is cherished and treasured unconditionally. The reading from the Book of Wisdom speaks of God’s tenderness, holding us gently through all our life and most gently of all at the hour of our death.

In the gospel of John Jesus speaks of heaven as a place with many dwelling places, in which there is a special place set aside for each of us since before we were born: a place where we can be welcomed just as we are and dwell for all eternity in the household of God.

It is a St Catharine’s tradition that on this day we remember before God the names of those Members of this College who have died during the past year. It is good that today we are able to welcome some of their nearest and dearest whether in person, or online.

Belonging matters. Membership of a College is a lifelong affinity, reflecting the profound impact that being part of a community such as this has on people’s lives as they pass through it, whether for just a few years as a student, or for longer as a Fellow, or in many other ways. It also reflects the profound impact that each of these people have made on this community both during their time here and in the many ways in which they have kept in touch with the College afterwards.

Each year this community reinvents itself, but it does so building on the gifts and memories and values of past generations. Everyone who comes through those gates leaves an imprint on this place: we leave something of ourselves behind and we take something of St Catharine’s with us when we leave.

The College Collect puts it so beautifully:

“O God for whom a thousand years are but as one day
and in whose name are treasured here
the memorials of many generations…”

This place treasures its people. We seek to care for and cherish each new cohort of students. And this service is also an act of care and cherishing for those Members of the College who have departed this life. It is an occasion on which we are able to articulate our hope and trust that just as they belonged here so also they now belong in the household of God and the peace of heaven.

This evening the words and the music, the candles and the silence, and the solace of community with one another are all here to help us to place these precious children of God into God’s loving hands, confident in the promise of Jesus Christ that he would prepare a place for each of us, and that through his own journey of suffering, death and resurrection, we too might find the door of heaven opened for us.

But in grief our hearts are troubled. It is a human reality that faith may bring us hope, but it does not erase our pain, and that love comes at a cost: a cost that we bear most acutely when those we love are taken from us, whether after a long and full life or far too soon.

There is room in God’s heart not only for our loved ones who have died, but also for us, in all our grief and pain and anger, and the complexity of emotions that overtake us when someone dies. The love of God is always big enough, deep enough, broad enough to hold us, whatever we are going through, and even when we are not able to perceive it, it is still there.

So my prayer is that we might know what it is to trust in the love of God, which brought us into being and in which we participate whenever we love someone, the love that is stronger than death, and in which we find the hope of heaven, that that love will surround us and those we love this night and always.

Some words of John Donne:

Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening
into the house and gate of heaven,
to enter into that gate and dwell in that house,
where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling,
but one equal light;
no noise nor silence, but one equal music;
no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession;
no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity:
in the habitations of thy majesty and glory,
world without end. Amen.