Dona Eis Requiem

Back in Lamford I began a monthly Requiem Mass on a Saturday morning. For many years I've been a member of that venerable Anglican society, the Guild of All Souls, which encourages prayer for the dead and the care of the bereaved; the Guild asks all its priest members to celebrate a monthly requiem, but apart from the annual parish requiem on All Souls Day I haven't done it here in Swanvale Halt. I thought a monthly celebration would be too ambitious, but a quarterly one (including the November date) to pray for those whose funerals we've officiated at recently and anyone else whose name is offered up seemed feasible. So I first did this on Saturday, and the service found 16 of us squeezed into the Lady Chapel. The atmosphere was quiet and prayerful and in the photo you can see the candles lit as intercessions for the dead (stood on a plant stand, in actual fact, which was so rusty I nipped out for some shoe polish to blacken it up). I count it as a success; we'll see how things go subsequently.