Rector, Casey Shobe Sermon by: The Rev. R. Casey Shobe
Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration | Dallas, Texas
November 2, 2017
All Souls’ Day

Why Pray for the Dead: All Souls’ Requiem

Texts:

We didn’t always pray for the dead. It may seem so natural now, given that we do it each and every week in our liturgy, and our service tonight is essentially one long prayer for the dead, but Anglicans didn’t always pray for the dead. For nearly 400 years, from the time of the Reformation until the early 20th century, the belief was that the dead were, well, dead, and whatever was going to happen to them was beyond our control. They were in the hands of God, to quote the writer of Wisdom, and therefore beyond our accessibility or influence.

The big change in attitudes about this happened, as is often the case, when a massive trauma called into question the things we previously believed. In this case, it was the horror of World War I, the “War to End All Wars,” when 18 million people died, or about 1 out of every 9 soldiers who fought on all sides.