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CHOIR/ORGAN/ALL: HYMN: Jerusalem the Golden (Ewing)1 Jerusalem the golden,聽With milk and honey blest,Beneath thy contemplationSink heart and voice opprest.I know not, O I know not,What social joys are there,What radiancy of glory,What light beyond compare.
2 They stand, those halls of Sion,聽Conjubilant with song,And bright with many an angel,聽And all the martyr throng;The Prince is ever in them,The daylight is serene,The pastures of the bless猫d聽Are decked in glorious sheen.
3 There is the throne of David,聽And there, from care released,The song of them that triumph,聽The shout of them that feast;And they who, with their Leader,Have conquered in the fight,For ever and for ever聽Are clad in robes of white.
4 O sweet and bless猫d country,聽Shall I ever see thy face?O sweet and blessed country,聽Shall I ever win thy grace?Exult, O dust and ashes!The Lord shall be thy part:His only, his for ever,Thou shalt be, and thou art!

PAT:聽Good morning, and welcome to the Chapel of Saints Peter and Paul at the Old Royal Naval College on the banks of the river Thames in Greenwich.聽聽The wonderful eighteenth century buildings that we occupy were built to the design of Sir Christopher Wren as the Royal Hospital for Seamen 鈥� a place of refuge for those who had served their country in the Navy;聽a place where they could live out their old age in some comfort and peace.
鈥僆n this place we remember all who have lived and worked here across the centuries and give thanks for the heritage handed down to us.聽The retired sailors who attended daily chapel services in the Hospital knew that the remembrance of those who had died at sea and those who died in the safe haven of this place was an important part of their everyday lives.聽Telling the stories of their Admirals and their shipmates kept alive their pride in their naval service and their hope that a greater glory awaited them when they too came to die.
This Sunday we keep the feast of All Souls as we remember before God with grateful hearts all those we love but see no more; those who have nurtured us or inspired us.
God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.
As we acknowledge our human frailty, we call to mind our sins of word, deed and omission, and confess them before God our Father.
鈥僘ou raise the dead to life in the Spirit:Lord have mercy.Lord have mercy
You bring pardon and peace to the broken heart:Christ have mercyChrist have mercy
You make one by your Spirit the torn and divided:Lord have mercy.Lord have mercy
May almighty God have mercy on you,Forgive you your sins,And bring you to everlasting life.Amen
CHOIR/ORGAN: ANTHEM: In Paradisum (Faure)
鈥働AT:May the angels lead you into paradise; may the martyrs receive you at your arrival and lead you to the Holy city Jerusalem.聽May choirs of angels receive you and with Lazarus, once a poor man, may you have eternal rest.
Let us pray:Everlasting God, our maker and redeemer,Grant us, with all the faithful departed,The sure benefits of your Son鈥檚 saving passionAnd glorious resurrection,聽that in the last day, when you gather up all things in Christ,We may with them enjoy the fullness of your promises;Through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,Who is alive and reigns with you,聽In the unity of the Holy Spirit,One God, now and forever.Amen
PAT:Our first bible reading is from the book of Wisdom. Wisdom is the perfection of knowledge, the fulfilment of wisdom is our knowledge of the utter glory and love of God, something those who love God (described by the writer of the book as the righteous) will be granted at their death as they come into the peace that passes all understanding that is our God.聽This sure and certain hope that death is not the end of life but a moment of transition, a gateway to a closer and fuller relationship with God is an important revelation of God鈥檚 love for us; the realisation that death is a part of life gives us the wisdom to live life more fully, secure in knowing that we, and all whom we love, are loved more fully and perfectly than we can ever imagine.
READER 1: Wisdom 3: 1-9The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them. 2 In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died, and their departure was thought to be an affliction, 3 and their going from us to be their destruction; but they are at peace. 4 For though in the sight of men they were punished, their hope is full of immortality.聽聽5 Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good, because God tested them and found them worthy of himself;聽6 like gold in the furnace he tried them,and like a sacrificial burnt offering he accepted them. 7 In the time of their visitation they will shine forth, and will run like sparks through the stubble.聽8 They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them for ever.聽9 Those who trust in him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with him in love, because grace and mercy are upon his elect, and he watches over his holy ones.
PAT:Tennyson鈥檚 poem 鈥楥rossing the bar鈥� portrays the life voyage we each must make. A sand bar can cut the beach off from the open sea, so to go out to sea the bar must be crossed.聽Sailors know the discipline needed to navigate the bar by reading the tides and the weather, avoiding becoming stranded on the bar.聽So we, to go on into the life that awaits us after death must cross over the barrier that separates this life from the next, being guided by Jesus, the pilot that brings us safely to where our final place with God may be found.

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,Too full for sound and foam,When that which drew from out the boundless deepTurns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,And after that the dark!And may there be no sadness of farewell,When I embark;
For though from out our bourne of Time and PlaceThe flood may bear me far,I hope to see my Pilot face to faceWhen I have crossed the bar.
PAT:Our next hymn is the Lord鈥檚 my Shepherd, a setting of Psalm 23 that describes how gently and tenderly God cares for us and is with us through the ups and downs of life and on through eternity.聽Jesus is the Good Shepherd, the one who carries us and leads us through this life, the one who comes to take us home to dwell with God for evermore.
CHOIR/ORGAN/ALL: HYMN: The Lord鈥檚 my shepherd (Crimond)1 The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want;He makes me down to lieIn pastures green; he leadeth meThe quiet waters by.
2 My soul he doth restore again,And me to walk doth makeWithin the paths of righteousness,E'en for his own name's sake.
3 Yea, though I walk through death's dark vale,Yet will I fear no ill:For thou art with me, and thy rodAnd staff me comfort still. 4 My table thou hast furnish猫dIn presence of my foes;My head thou dost with oil anoint,And my cup overflows.
5 Goodness and mercy all my lifeShall surely follow me;And in God's house for evermoreMy dwelling-place shall be.

PAT:Our second bible reading is from St Paul鈥檚 first letter to the Corinthians. In this passage St Paul reminds the early church of the words and actions of Jesus at the Last Supper.聽This moment is at the heart of our faith, for God鈥檚 constant and everlasting love is made real to each of us each time we eat the bread and drink the wine that Jesus said were his body and his blood.聽Jesus knows that in his death on the cross his body will be broken and his blood shed, in his pain he gives himself for us in the ultimate act of love that one can offer for another, to give their life.聽It鈥檚 shocking and humbling that this very public death should open the way to each of us for everlasting life, for in his death, we at our death, can go to be with God for ever.
READER 2: 1 Corinthians 11:23-2623 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, 鈥淭his is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.鈥澛�25 In the same way also the cup, after supper, saying, 鈥淭his cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.鈥澛�26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord鈥檚 death until he comes.
PAT:In a moment we鈥檒l hear from our preacher, the Revd Dr Steve Nolan, who is chaplain at the Princess Alice Hospice in Esher.聽But before that, the choir sings Holy is the true light, the light of God. Jesus is the light of God, the light of the world that shows us the way to God and our everlasting and eternal home.
CHOIR: ANTHEM: Holy is the true light (Harris)
鈥僑TEVE:聽For over a thousand years, All Souls鈥� Day has been a day set aside for the Church to care about the souls of those who have 鈥榙eparted鈥�.聽It was a day kept solemn for prayers and intersessions on behalf of those souls who were being purified before their onward journey to heaven.
These are 鈥榯he souls of the righteous鈥� that we heard about in our first reading.聽This reading speaks to our need to know whether the person we loved and who has died is safe, and it tells us they 鈥榓re in the hand of God, [where] no torment will ever touch them鈥�.
This ancient reading is from a tradition of writing known as the Wisdom writings.聽These are writings that are concerned with the question of how we might live well and they give advice about everyday life and how to live it.
The writer observes that people have different ways of thinking about death; not everyone regards death in the same way.聽He says that to some people death is an unremitting disaster: the dead are dead and there鈥檚 an end to it.(v2)
But that鈥檚 not how this writer sees it.聽This writer is confident that those who have died are 鈥榓t peace鈥� with God and they 鈥榓bide with him in love, because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones鈥� and God is watching over them.
鈥傿ut then the writer says something that seems perhaps a little unexpected and we might think that it鈥檚 somewhat out of place. He tells us that 鈥榯heir hope is full of immortality鈥�.
What does that mean, to have a hope that is 鈥榝ull of immortality鈥�?
One translator has interpreted it as meaning that the souls of the righteous have 鈥榓 sure hope of immortality鈥�, and that may very well have been what the writer had in mind.
But to me, this unexpected phrase speaks powerfully to the reason why All Souls鈥� Day, and the act of remembering, is so important when it comes to the ways we continue to love and care about and feel attached to those who have died.
Nothing prepares us for the death of one we love, one who has been significant in our life.聽Even when that person has been seriously ill and we have known that soon they would die; when that moment comes it can be hard to accept the reality of what has happened.
How much more so when that person died suddenly, without warning and without time to prepare?
Or if that person was a baby that we鈥檇 had no time to get to know?
It鈥檚 common to feel that we have been robbed.
No amount of time is ever sufficient time. Whether they lived a long and full life or their life was cut short, we are greedy for more time: more time to hear their voice, to hold their hand; to stroke their hair; more time simply to be together.
Nothing prepared us for their leaving and so we want to know that, wherever they are 鈥� if they are anywhere 鈥� that somehow they are safe.聽Having cared about them in our life together, we feel so helpless. Yet our urge to care remains strong.
So All Souls鈥� Day sets aside time for us to remember.
Not that we need to be reminded to remember 鈥� when grief is raw we can do little else and when our grief subsides, as it will, we cherish and nurture those memories.
But All Souls鈥� Day sets that act of remembrance within the community of the Church and surrounds it with prayer.聽And in this setting, we make our individual act of remembrance within a group of others who are also remembering, and somehow this strengthens our memories.
Why does it matter that we strengthen our memories?
I think a good answer to that question is found in a line from the Scottish poet, Thomas Campbell. Almost two hundred years ago, he wrote: 鈥楾o live in hearts we leave behind is not to die.鈥�
Memories are fragile things. We like to think that our memories of the person who has died will be strong and clear; but the truth is that over time they become foggy.聽We struggle to remember the details and then we鈥檙e left only with impressions.
And when a person is forgotten then they really have died.
The way we keep memories fresh and alive is by returning to them regularly and preferably with others who share the same memories of that person.
I know a man who every month visited his late wife鈥檚 grave. He took her flowers and sat with her for a while before coming to attend the monthly remembrance service at our Hospice.
I know of a family who each year meets for lunch at a gastropub near the Hospice before coming to attend our annual Light up a Life service of remembrance.聽They share stories about the person who died and then come along to the service to light a candle in her memory.
And I know a family who lost a small child during labour. Every year, on the child鈥檚 birthday, they take flowers and gather around the tiny grave.聽They speak few words but each takes time to remember the child that they had prepared nine months for and to love the memory of the child they had never known.
鈥僊emories are fragile things and we need to do what we can to keep them alive. All Soul鈥檚 Day is a day provided by the Church to remind us to remember.
And I think this is what the Wisdom writer meant when he wrote that 鈥榯he souls of the righteous鈥� have a 鈥榟ope 鈥� full of immortality鈥�.
He knew that these souls had been loved in life and that they would be remembered in their death and that, in being remembered, in having people who would nurture and cherish their memory,聽they would not be forgotten and in that way they would continue to live in the love of the living.

CHOIR/ORGAN/ALL: HYMN: Ye holy angels bright (Darwall鈥檚 148th)1 Ye holy angels bright,Who wait at God's right hand,Or through the realms of lightFly at your Lord's command,Assist our song,For else the themeToo high doth seemFor mortal tongue.
2 Ye bless猫d souls at rest,Who ran this earthly race,And now, from sin released,Behold the Saviour's face,God's praises sound,As in his sightWith sweet delightYe do abound. 3 Ye saints, who toil below,Adore your heavenly King,And onward as ye goSome joyful anthem sing;Take what he givesAnd praise him still,Through good or ill,Who ever lives!
4 My soul, bear thou thy part,Triumph in God above:And with a well-tuned heartSing thou the songs of love!Let all thy daysTill life shall end,Whate'er he send,Be filled with praise.

鈥僐EADER 3:聽Let us prayJesus, bread from heaven,You satisfy the hungry with good things:Grant us a share with all the faithful departedIn the banquet of your kingdom.
Hear us, risen Lord,Our resurrection and our life.
READER 4:聽Jesus, the light of the world,You gave the man born blind the gift of sight:Open the eye of faithAnd bring us from darknessTo your eternal light and glory.
Hear us, risen Lord,Our resurrection and our life.
READER 3:聽Jesus, Son of the living God,You summoned your friend Lazarus from death to life:Raise us at the last to full and eternal life with you.
Hear us, risen Lord, Our resurrection and our life.READER 4:聽Jesus, crucified Saviour,In your dying you entrusted each to the other,Mary your mother and John your beloved disciple:Sustain and comfort all who mourn.
Hear us, risen Lord,Our resurrection and our life.
READER 3:聽Jesus, our way and truth and life,You drew your disciple Thomas from doubt to faith:Reveal the resurrection faith to the doubting and the lost.
Hear us, risen Lord,Our resurrection and our life.
PAT:We bring before God all who at this time are suffering in mind, body, and spirit, in the words Jesus taught us to pray:
鈥傾LL:Our Father, which art in heaven,聽hallowed be thy name;聽thy kingdom come;聽thy will be done;聽in earth as it is in heaven.聽Give us this day our daily bread.聽And forgive us our trespasses,聽as we forgive them that trespass against us.聽And lead us not into temptation;聽but deliver us from evil.聽For thine is the kingdom,聽the power and the glory,聽for ever and ever.Amen.
PAT:May God in his infinite love and mercyBring the whole church,Living and departed in the Lord Jesus,To a joyful resurrectionAnd the fulfilment of his eternal kingdom.Amen.
鈥僊ay God give youHis comfort and his peaceHis light and his joy,In this world and the nextAnd the blessing of God AlmightyThe Father, the Son and the Holy SpiritBe upon you and all whom you loveThis day and for evermoreAmen

CHOIR/ORGAN: ANTHEM: The Lord bless you and keep you (Rutter)

[ORGAN: VOLUNTARY:聽 Apparition de l鈥檈glise eternelle (Messiaen)]