Before I was ordained a Deacon in the summer of 1982, I had attended the annual gathering of Methodists only once. So I was unfamiliar with the traditions. And I had never heard of All Saints' Day. But I have come to cherish the rituals and traditions of the church. Two hymns are traditionally sung at the Annual Conference: a Charles Wesley hymn often sung at the beginning, "And Are We Yet Alive", and "For All the Saints" commonly chosen for the memorial service as we remember those who have died during the past year.

My memory is full of those dear ones who have gone on before me. Each year my congregations lit candles and recited the names of members and friends who had died the preceding year. And we sang. One hymn became precious to me.

The third verse of Natalie Sleeth's "Hymn of Promise"

"In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity; in our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity. In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see."