The Victories of Sanity

*does not sign up for secret_slasha*

*does not sign up for secret_slasha*

*does not sign up for secret_slasha*

To be repeated until sign-ups close, whenever that is.

Commemoration of the Faithful Departed

Apparently, we Episcopalians/Anglicans do celebrate All Souls' Day (now; it wasn't always the case) although since we don't believe in Purgatory (a shame, in my opinion; the richer the symbology we take from tradition the better) I'm not quite sure what the point is.

*googles*

Aha! It took me a surprisingly long time, but I finally came across an explanation, quoting from Lesser Feasts and Fasts:

In the New Testament, the word "saints" is used to describe the entire membership of the Christian community, and in the Collect for All Saints' Day the word 'elect' is used in a similar sense. From very early times, however, the word "saint" came to be applied primarily to persons of heroic sanctity, whose deeds were recalled with gratitude by later generations.

Beginning in the 10th century, it became customary to set aside another day -- as a sort of extension of All Saints -- on which the Church remembered that vast body of the faithful who, thought no less members of the company of the redeemed, are unknown in the wider fellowship of the Church. It was also a day for particular remembrance of family members and friends.
 
Though the observance of the day was abolished at the Reformation because of abuses connected with Masses for the dead, a renewed understanding of its meaning has led to a widespread acceptance of this commemoration among Anglicans, and to its inclusion as an optional observance on the calendar of the Episcopal Church.

Anyway, the ficlet is here.

ETA: I accidentally deleted the comment, but Elizabeth said, "Huh. I'm not high church at all, but it feels common knowledge for me these past few years that lots of modern liberal churches (those being the ones I've spent the most time in) use 'saints' more broadly than the secular heroic concept, complete with pointing out the term's usage in the New Testament."

Her experience has also been mine, and the explanation really does feel like it's twisting itself out of joint in order to not address the purgatory issue, so it doesn't ring quite true for me either, but I can recognize the socio-historical factors at play (mainly Anglo-Catholicism's expanding influence within the Communion in the last two centuries). I am of course very high church and am not troubled by the tension at all; I was just interested in how Anglicanism explained it to itself.