Dear Bay Shore Family,
As we reflect on another All Saints Sunday together I am reminded of all the people that I have had the privilege of knowing in my years here at Bay Shore. Their faces and stories are forever in my memory as I walk through my weeks here, their voices and reminders are everywhere.
It would be easy for me to start naming names like Bernice Flickinger, Lois Dallman, and Lorraine Kubitschek, many of you won’t remember those lovely women or the Speerschnieders, the Semlers and the McCroskeys…all once served with us, sang with us, laughed and cried with us. You may not remember, but they are all here.
The Apostles’ Creed that we say on Sundays reminds us that we believe in the “Communion of Saints” which from what I have gleaned from my years now in the Lutheran church means that all the baptized who came before us, those among us now and even those who are yet to be born are Saints in our presence. That’s a pretty cosmic thought, but I like it! My friend Carolyn used to describe that while she was receiving Holy Communion, she would think of her grandmother holding her hand on the way to receive the holy meal. Everyone present, everyone welcome, today and forever.
Surrounded by the Communion of Saints, we remember the people who left our earthly home this year and to all those from years gone by, I say thank you. Thank you, Mother and Dad, for making church an important commitment in our lives, thank you to my husband and children who make the journey of life so full and precious, and thank you to my Bay Shore family from Carla Hoelz to Gordy Hackbarth to Michael Trost and all the rest for sharing your faith journeys with me in this life as Saints together forever.
Happy All Saints Sunday!
Kate Yelvington