Allsaintstide & Remembrance 2024

27 October 

• 3:00pm Pontifical Mass with Baptisms and Confirmations

A special service of Baptism and Confirmation with the Commissioning of new Lay Ministers for our parish. The celebration will be followed by refreshments.
Celebrant and Preacher: The Bishop of Bedford

2 November - All Souls’ Day​

• 1:00pm Solemn Requiem Mass as All Saints'

A Requiem Mass to remember and pray for the soul of all those whom we have loved and lost. The Mass will be followed by refreshments.

3 November - All Saints’ Sunday

• 10:30am Parish Mass at All Saints'

Sunday within the Octave of All Saints'. Patronal Festival of Houghton Regis celebrating the title feast of the Parish Church. On All Saints' Sunday we celebrate all the Saints who rejoice in heaven and intercede for us before God.

10 November - Remembrance Sunday

• 9:45am Requiem Mass at All Saints'
• 6:00pm Sunday Mass at St Thomas'

A service of remembrance and prayer for all fallen service personnel and victims of war followed by the Act of Remembrance at the Memorial Stone.

11 November - Armistice Day

• 10:50am Act of Remembrance

A short memorial service for all fallen service personnel with the 11:00am Act of Remembrance at the Memorial Stone.

About Allsaintstide and Remembrance

The days surrounding the Feast of All Saints (1 November), traditionally called Allsaintstide, are very important ones in our parish. During this time we celebrate our patronal festival – the dedication of the Parish Church to all the saints who ever lived and now rejoice in heaven in the presence of God.
At All Saints' we usually keep this important celebration to the Sunday in the Octave of All Saints'. This year we will celebrate it on Sunday 5 November as "All Saints' Sunday".

On All Souls’ Day (2 November) we remember, and pray for, all our loved ones who have died. Allsaintstide and Remembrance then continues as we pray for all the war dead on Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day.

While many people think of the saints as (sometimes unreachable) examples of ‘virtuous and godly living’, this hardly does justice to the biblical insight that in our pilgrimage through this world ‘we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses’ (Hebrews 12:1). Sanctity is not about hero-worship as about accessibility; the saints are the real men and women of every age in whose lives we can glimpse heaven in our midst. They are our partners in prayer:
Before thy throne we daily meet
As joint-petitioners to thee;
In spirit each the other greet,
And shall again each other see.
                 - Richard Baxter