Today is All Saints Day which has a special significance for us here at St Anne and All Saints. We are a church named after the witness and example of all those people of faith who have gone before us; that ‘great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us’ and encourages us to run the race that the gospel inspires us towards (Hebrews 12:1-2).
We inherited the ‘All Saints’ part of our name from a church that used to stand on the site of what is now the Lansdowne Green Estate. After that building was destroyed in WW2 the congregation moved to St Barnabas Church in Guildford Road. Around 1980 they merged with St Anne’s to become St Anne and All Saints, and some of the congregation that moved here then are still with us. All Saints Day is an opportunity for us to remember our history.
We would normally be celebrating today with a Patronal Festival and a church lunch. That’s obviously not possible in the current circumstances, but the saints in the kingdom of heaven can celebrate on our behalf with the food and drink Jesus promises at his table in Luke 22.29.
Meanwhile, perhaps we can use today to give thanks for all those saints who have been faithful to Christ in this corner of London since 1793, and from whom we have inherited the responsibility of sharing the good news of Jesus Christ through our words and mission.
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