The Feast of All Saints will be here in eleven days. As you prepare to celebrate All Saints Day, we would like to make you aware of ChurchNext classes and other online resources that can help you and your family celebrate both All Saints Day itself and individual saints throughout the year.

Several ChurchNext classes can help you and your congregation or family celebrate All Saints Day. As we remember those who have died, particularly in the past year, we grieve for them as well as celebrating their lives. For guidance through the grieving process, consider taking Grieving Well with Andrew Gerns (also available for groups.) Another class that you might find useful is Crossing Thresholds with Roger Ferlo and Suzann Holding, which covers how to transition with grace through important milestones in the life of a Christian. The class focuses on both baptism and death, making it particularly relevant to All Saints Day. Finally, since many people are made new saints through baptism on All Saints Day, we recommend our baptism courses, taught by Anne Kitch: Introducing Christian Baptism (available for groups), Adult Baptism in The Episcopal Church (available for groups), and Preparing for Infant and Children’s Baptism in The Episcopal Church (available for groups.) Prospective godparents might consider taking How to Be a Godparent or How to be a Godparent for Groups.

In addition to resources about All Saints Day, we would like to make you aware of excellent online resources that can teach you and your family about the saints, for use on All Saints Day and throughout the year. ChurchNext will be producing a class on Praying With Saints in the coming months. In the meantime, Saints and Commemorations of The Episcopal Church is a terrific resource that offers links to pages for each saint with a saint’s day celebrated in The Episcopal Church. The pages include information about each saint, images of the saints, and prayers appropriate to the day on which we celebrate each saint. Also, Forward Movement offers a Liturgical Calendar with links to information about the lives of the saints prayers for each saint’s day. Forward Movement also offers a year-long class free for downloading called Celebrating the Saints. (It’s not an online class, but you can get free access to it online, so we include it.)

Lastly, families and educators might consider online resources for teaching children about All Saints Day and about the saints. The Episcopal Church offers Lesson Plans That Work with links to specific lesson plans designed for teaching young children, older children, and adults about All Saints Day. Also, Forward Movement offers Meet the Saints, a guide for educators and storybook for families to learn about twenty-six of the saints. (Again, this is a free resource available for downloading.)

We hope that you find these resources useful and that you and your families have a blessed All Saints Day.