Dear Friends,

One of the songs that is supposed to be in this year's young people's Pantomime is "Always look on the bright side of life" (from Monty Python's 'Life of Brian').  It presents a rather dark (and quirky, being Monty Python) philosophy of life: "life's a laugh and death's a joke it's true" but, if you appreciate that sort of humour, I think it remains essentially cheerful.  You'll have to make up your own mind !

With the darker evenings, now that the clocks have changed, come other dark thoughts; but again, do they have to be ?  31^st October is almost universally known as `Hallowe'en`, something that has now become associated in most people's minds, I guess, with grotesque illuminated pumpkins, children dressed as witches and ghouls, and the potentially frightening (even vicious) custom of `trick or treat`. 

But `Hallowe'en` means, simply, 'All Hallows Eve'.  Or, to put it in more modern English, `the night before All Saints Day`.  Not a ghoulish or frightening occasion at all, but the time when Christians remember - and celebrate - "that great cloud of witnesses" who are the company of the saints through the ages, many of them unrecorded, but all part of the people of God, all having played their part in living and handing on the Christian faith in their generation.

This year All Saints Day (1^st November) falls on a Sunday, and we shall be celebrating it at 8 am and 10 am in both churches on that Sunday morning - so why not come along ?  It is a festival of light, not darkness; the light of the saints.

But somehow, we humans seem to appreciate light more when it is set against darkness, so we adopted the night before to celebrate with lights - bonfires, fireworks even, a variety of curious customs (not including trick or treat !) for children to enjoy - celebrating the saints should be fun !  And this year we are determined to offer you the opportunity to join in, so we are holding a Christian `Hallowe'en` party at the Elstead Cricket Pavilion on the Thursley Road Recreation Ground - Saturday 31^st October, 6 pm to 7.30 pm, when we invite you to come and celebrate the saints with a short act of worship, food and crazy party games - so, 'Always look on the bright side of life'.

If that is too bright for you (or even if it isn't), you are also invited to a different sort of service on the following day: on Sunday evening, 1^st November, at 6.30 pm in Thursley Church, there will be a requiem service in which we will remember the faithful departed whom we have known personally.  They may well be saints, too, but this is when we remember those whose memory is so recent (and so personal) that perhaps we find it harder to think of them that way.  Again, do come.