A Unique Place

It was the only place in my forty years of ministry where we took seriously the notion of the communion of saints. His name was H. Louis Patrick and he was pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, N.C. The church tended to be a fairly high liturgical congregation. This Presbyterian Church had an Episcopalian Choir Director who gave Trinity acolytes and a lot of "high church" traditions. But the inclusion of a weekly prayer for the Communion of Saints was the pastor's decision. Every week we prayed for "all those who having lived with Thee on earth, now live with Thee in Heaven." We prayed that we might live in such a faith that we would be united with them in Heaven.

Lots of the congregations with which I worked professed in the Creeds they said that they believe in the Communion of Saints, There was always something about the Saints of the Church on All Saints Sunday in November, but Trinity was the only place I ever worked that included a prayer for the Communion of Saints in every week's worship. There are other Christian traditions which include more prayers and traditions about the Communion of Saints, But at Trinity with Dr. Patrick we prayed for those saints who had lived and died in faith. We prayed for them with the same notion that people in the USA lived and prayed for their citizens in Europe during World War II. The liturgical practice of praying for the Communion of Saints kept alive in our awareness the kind of faith and affirmations that we made in other congregations only at Funerals.

Such liturgical practices do have an impact. Here it is more than 35 years later and I still remember that has been the only congregation I have served that took seriously the whole notion of the church being both those living now and those who are living in the resurrection We are both part of the kingdom of God and the faith is that we will all be reunited in the love and power of God.