All Saints’ Day: The Communion of the Redeemed

November 1
“O Almighty God, who hast knit together thine elect in one communion and fellowship, in the mystical body of thy Son Christ our Lord…” — The Collect for All Saints’ Day, 1662 BCP

The appointed Collect and Readings for All Saints’ Day (Revelation 7:2–12 and Matthew 5:1–12) draw our eyes from earth to heaven, from the struggles of the Church militant to the triumph of the Church triumphant. They reveal the communion of saints not as an abstract doctrine, but as the living fellowship of all who are redeemed in Christ Jesus.

All Saints’ Day is not a celebration of human heroism but of divine grace. The saints are not spiritual elites standing above us; they are sinners saved by grace, gathered by the Lamb into one communion and fellowship. The Church, says the Collect, is “knit together” by God Himself—woven into the mystical body of His Son. The glory of the saints is the glory of Christ shared with His people.

In the Epistle, John beholds that “great multitude, which no man could number,” clothed in white robes and crying, “Salvation to our God... and unto the Lamb.” This vision lifts our eyes to the end for which the Church was made: unbroken communion with God and one another, made possible by the blood of Christ. The white robes are not our achievements but His righteousness; the palm branches are signs of victory won through His cross.

The Gospel reading from Matthew 5 reminds us that sainthood is not triumphalism but discipleship. The blessed life of the kingdom is marked by poverty of spirit, meekness, mercy, purity, and peace. These are not conditions we fulfill to earn heaven—they are the fruits of grace in those who have been sealed as Christ’s own. The Beatitudes reveal the shape of the new creation life that already dawns in those united to Him.

Cranmer retained the feast of All Saints precisely to reform its observance—purging abuses and re-centering the day on the grace of God in Christ. Some in the Anglo-Catholic tradition have turned All Saints’ Day into an occasion for practices that our Anglican Formularies expressly forbid—invocation of saints, prayers to the departed, or notions of their mediatorial intercession. The Reformers recovered this feast, not to blur the line between Creator and creature, but to magnify the grace of God in Christ, who alone is the Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5). The Articles of Religion (XXII) are clear that “the Romish doctrine concerning… Invocation of Saints is a fond thing vainly invented.” To honor the saints rightly is to thank God for His grace in them, to follow their faith, and to look with them to the same Lord who has redeemed us all.

Reformation Anglicans rejoice today not in relics or intercessions of the saints, but in what we confess each week in the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe in the communion of saints.” In the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, this Creed is recited daily in Morning and Evening Prayer, and at Baptism and Confirmation, as the Church’s continual confession of the faith once delivered to the saints. This communion is the fellowship of all believers, living and departed, united in the risen Christ. We thank God for their example, follow them in faith and holiness, and look with hope to that day when faith will be sight, when “we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

So we pray: “Grant us grace so to follow thy blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those unspeakable joys, which thou hast prepared for those who unfeignedly love thee.”