That morning three weeks ago, the seven of us from Alabama sat in the front row of the church. We listened to the singing by the congregation, we heard the sermon by Pere Val and celebrated with the people as two babies were baptized that morning. All of the hymns and words were in Creole which none of us understood, but we did understand the spirit of the prayers since the Episcopal Church in Gorman and all of Haiti uses the Book of Common Prayer just as we do. The Episcopal Church in Haiti is a diocese of the Episcopal Church, USA with over 150,000 members. We were at home, even if we did not understand every word spoken. The bread was broken, the common cup was shared and we celebrated communion with our brothers and sisters in the faith. THAT is what the communion of the saints is all about and today we celebrate the feast of All Saints, that annual feast day every year at the beginning of November when we remember the saints who have come before us, who are with us now and those yet to be born.

Sitting in the old chairs or on the benches in the Episcopal Church in Gorman was such a strong reminder that the saints of the church are with us always in all shapes and ages and races. It was a reminder that we don’t have to be in great cathedral churches with ornate stain glass windows and magnificent lighting to celebrate the sacredness of Christian worship or communion together.  Later that week, we came back to the church in Gorman when we brought one ton of beans and rice and cooking oil for 102 families impacted by the September hurricanes. Here we were – Patrick and I and the others in our group – distributing beans and rice – not in Clanton as we did yesterday, but in Gorman, Haiti to members of our world-wide fellowship in faith. What a powerful reminder that we are all one in the faith in Jesus Christ and that when one part of the body of Christ is suffering, the entire body of Christ is suffering. When one part of the body of Christ is hungry, it is the responsibility of the other parts of the body of Christ to share and to bring food to help meet their need. That teaching was first taught to us by St. Paul as he funds from the church in Antioch to the saints in Jerusalem whO were without food and were hungry and in need. The people of Gorman, Haiti are faithful in their commitment to God, their creator and redeemer, just like you and me, and like the people in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. The people of Gorman, Haiti seek to serve God by caring for one another as best they can, just like you and me. The people of Gorman, Haiti, have dreams and hopes for both themselves and their children just like you and me and we witnessed them expressing their hopes and dreams in the hymns they sang and the prayers they prayed and in the exchange of peace with one another in their church that has just one light bulb hanging down from the ceiling over the altar. And yet, the light of Christ was as bright as it is in our midst here at Trinity Church this morning.

Part of the meaning behind All Saints Day, and All Hallows Eve and All Souls Day in early November is remembering the generations of men and women  who have come before us in the faith of our mothers and fathers and we will name some of those saints who have died during this past year in the litany for our ancestors that we will pray together in a few moments. We need to let the image of their lives and what they have given to us today be understood as a blessing to each of us. I have often thought and sometimes stated aloud that we as Christians are but one generation from extinction. Because, if we do not tell the sacred stories and live out the truths of the faith contained in those stories, Christianity will be extinguished and the light will go out. Today, we remember our own generation of saints not only here at Trinity, Clanton but in all of the towns and countries were we were born and were we have lived or the places where we have traveled, including Gorman and Fond Parisien and Lilavios and Croix des Bouquets in Haiti. And today we remember the saints yet to be born not only in this place in the years to come, but in the church around the world. I often wonder how the Christian faith will be expressed and what will be the structures of Christian community 100 years or 200 years  or even 1,000 years from now.

Several years ago, I walked into a church in Canterbury, England that has been a place of prayer for 1,500 years. St. Martin’s Church in Canterbury existed in the year 500ad. Saints’ prayed there in every generation since that time and continue to do so today and there is only possible because every single generation was committed and serious in their faith in Jesus Christ and that they saw to it that the church survived.  That is what the communion of the saints is all about and that is why we stop to remember all of the saints from every generation before us and that is why we must be serious about maintaining this parish church for generations yet to be born and who will come to this place to pray and to be baptized and to be married and to be buried and to remember all of us who have passed through this sacred place before them.

When we witnessed the baptisms of Chloe and Bristol last Sunday, we were preparing the way for the church to continue into another generation and making a commitment to share the sacred stories yet again to the youngest in our midst. When Bishop Sloan welcomed into our fellowship Hans and Paula, Joe and Paula last week, we were strengthening our current generation of saints’ who grace this worshiping community. And when Patrick and I sat in the front seats of the church in Gorman, Haiti three weeks ago, we were graced by the presence of fellow saints’ in the church universal who struggle as do we to remain hopeful in the midst of fear and times of uncertainty, yet being surrounded by fellow saints in the faith.

We are all fellow pilgrims and travelers of a road less traveled, part of an ever growing image of the long line of succeeding Christian generations we can bring to mind as we celebrate again the feast of All Saints.