A Sermon Preached at the Requiem for All Souls’ Day, November 2, 2014

By the Rev’d Canon Dane E. Boston, Trinity Cathedral, Columbia, South Carolina

Texts: Isaiah 25:6-9; I Corinthians 15:50-58; John 5:24-27

“For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”

May I speak in the Name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Our culture is not much inclined to the contemplation of Death. Advances in science and technology—in medicine and nutrition—have given us a sense of distance from Death unimaginable to our ancestors. A stroll through the Trinity Churchyard and a glance at the many stones there marking the resting places of children lost to treatable diseases and strong young people lost to war or accidents reminds us that, barely more than a century ago, Death was a power ever-present—a danger of which to…