Dear Church Family,
Happy All Saints Days!
 November 1 is a day set aside in the Christian calendar to remember those saints in the church, named and unnamed, who make up the glorious company of heaven.  It is also known as All Hallows day, hallow being the word for ‘holy.’  Thus Hallow-Eve or Halloween is the night before. The church appropriated a day which was connected with a festival of the harvest and the practice of warding off ghosts, to its  own ends, as a preparation for honoring “holy ones” gone before.    Now of  course , Halloween is a secular holiday, a day to dress up, solicit for candy, and have fun with the spooky. 
It is also big business.  It is estimated we’ll spend $12.2 billion on Halloween costumes and decorations, a lot of money but still much less than Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day or,  of course,  (the big winner) Christmas. 
We enjoyed being with our grandchildren for Halloween.  The whole family (including Omi and Pop) dressed up as the Bluey family.  If you’re not familiar with Bluey, it is an Australian cartoon which deals with the joys and pitfalls of family life.  Check it out.   Christie had also organized a family party with bobbing for apples and other games, before going trick or treating..  A lot of fun. 
Sunday is a communion week.  We’ll be exploring “Worthy Diners.”  The texts are Micah 6: 6-8 and 1 Corinthians 11: 17-29.
See you in church
Rich