All Souls' Day

If Anglican parishes are going to keep All Souls' Day at the present time then I suggest that they need to have a persuasive doctrine to support the celebration. This does not seem to be the case with modern Anglican Churches, if the content of the specially created, modern Collects are taken as evidence.

In the BCP 1662 there is no Collect for All Souls' for the day is not named for celebration, as the western doctrine of Purgatory, which undergirded it, was rejected. However, in the Common Worship (2000) of the Church of England, the Collect for All Souls' in the 'traditional language' form is as
follows:

"Everlasting God, our maker and redeemer, grant us with all the faithful departed, the sure benefits of thy Son's saving passion and glorious resurrection, that, in the last day, when thou dost gather up all things in Christ, we may with them enjoy the fullness of thy promises; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."

And the Post Communion prayer is:

"O God of love, grant that the death and resurrection of Christ, which we have celebrated in this sacrament may bring us, with all the faithful departed, into the peace of thine eternal home; through Jesus Christ, our rock and our salvation, to whom be glory for time and eternity."

In these Prayers there is no specific presence of the crucial doctrine for the traditional keeping of All Souls' Day, the doctrine of the Church Expectant. That is of the souls of baptized Christians who are being purified, purged and sanctified by the grace of Christ in order that they can enter as perfected souls into the closer presence of Christ and for the redemption of their bodies [at the Last Day], and so that they have glorified souls and bodies for life everlasting and the enjoyment of the beatific vision.

In fact these Anglican prayers could be used on All Saints' Day, which celebrates both the numberless faithful Christians who have gone before us and the equally great number of faithful Christians now on earth as pilgrims and sojourners, and few would sense that they were inappropriate!

In the now discarded Alternative Service Book (1980) of the C of E the following is the appointed Collect:

"Merciful God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life of all the faithful: raise us from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, that at the last we, with our brother/sister. may come to thy eternal joy;."

If we now look at traditional Western Collects for All Souls' we shall see that they presuppose the doctrine of the Church Expectant in Purgation and of the duty of the Church Militant on earth to pray for those in Purgation so that they will move on by grace into the fullness of forgiveness & redemption, and into the company of the Saints in glory.

"O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all them that believe: grant unto the souls of thy servants and handmaidens the remission of their sins; that as they have desired thy merciful pardon, so by the supplications of their brethren they may receive the same.."

"O God to whom alone belongeth the forgiveness of sins: grant, we pray thee, to the souls of thy servants and handmaidens, whose burial we now commemorate, to find a place of refreshing, and the blessedness of rest, and to enjoy the glory of everlasting light."

"O God, who desirest not the death of a sinner, but rather that all mankind should be saved, we beseech thee mercifully to grant that thy servants and handmaidens, who have passed out of this world, may ever by the intercession of the Blessed Mary ever Virgin and of all thy Saints come to enjoy with them everlasting blessedness.."

I am not here commending the use of these Collects; but, I am pointing out that if modern Anglicans are going to reject the doctrine of the classic BCP & Articles of Religion and treat All Souls' as a special day then they need to have some clear doctrine to support it. Mere sentimentality and/or vagueness will not do!


The Rev'd Dr. Peter Toon