November Reflection

Thanksgiving and remembering - Canon Philip Hobday

This week my plans were altered abruptly.  I was due to visit an old (in both senses!) friend in a care home on Wednesday, but sadly he died on Monday, aged 89.  He had been a real support and a great companion during my first major role as a priest.  He was a huge encouragement when I tentatively began to explore post-graduate study, even when I wasn’t sure I could justify the time or cost.  When the first lockdown was announced I wrote to him (he never emailed and rarely used the phone) to check in; he told me pointedly he was cycling to the shops every day and did not consider himself vulnerable – despite being in his eighties, living alone, and being a cancer survivor!

The beginning of November is in the church year a season of remembrance.  This Sunday, we celebrate our Patronal Festival of All Saints, and there will be a wonderful Eucharist at 10:00 when Bishop David Hope (formerly chorister and bishop here) will preach, followed by Festal Evensong at 15:30 and Messy Cathedral at 16:00.  Then we mark All Souls’ tide, where we remember loved ones who have died at the Chantry Chapel at 16:30 on Sunday 02 November and with a Requiem Eucharist at the Cathedral at 19:00 on Thursday 06 November.  On Friday 07 November at the 19:00 Festival of Remembrance and on Sunday 09 November at 11:00 at the Cenotaph, we honour those who served and sacrificed for our country’s freedom.  That evening we remember all victims of war with a Requiem Eucharist at 15:30.

Remembering, in the Christian and Jewish traditions, is not just an act of recalling someone.  It’s a bit more purposeful, more active, than that.  So we give thanks for those we love and see no longer, and those who died in conflict.  We reflect on how we have been blessed by the special people in our lives, and in turn ask ourselves how we might be a blessing to others.  And we can be strengthened as Christians, because this season reminds us that we have people with us as we tread the sometimes testing path of life and faith: for we are part of a great global, cosmic gathering of those, living and departed and yet come, who Christ calls, with us, to be his followers and friends.  To be a Christian is to live in their company, to breathe the same air, and to know that (in a phrase so beloved of our outgoing Bishop’s favourite football team!) in following Christ we never walk alone.

With prayers and best wishes,

Philip