Southern Pennsylvania and Northern Maryland prepare for the 15th Annual Community All Saints’ Day Service.

The 15th annual Community All Saints’ Day Service will be held on Friday, November 1, 2002 at 7:30 pm at Grace United Methodist Church, 473 Plank Road in Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania.  Nearly 30 clergy and lay persons representing the churches of southern and southeastern York and northern Baltimore and Harford Counties will participate in this special interfaith service which revisits the ancient Christian holy day following All Hallows Eve and memorializes area individuals who have died during the last year.

The Community All Saints Day Service is designed to offer comfort and hope to all who grieve, and the public is invited to attend.  During the service, close to 400 names of area deceased will be raised individually in prayer, and a bell will be tolled in each person¹s memory.  A time for refreshment and fellowship will follow the service.

The message at this year’s service, titled IT’S NOT AT THE SNAP OF OUR FINGERS, will be given by host pastor, The Reverend Mitchell C. Hescox.  Special music during the service will be offered by the Grace United Methodist Church Men’s Ensemble, vocalists Dana Zbozien and Kim Butcher, and York Junior Symphony musicians Natalie Blevins and Ryan Frost.  The free-will offering collected at this year’s service will benefit OLIVIA’S HOUSE: A GRIEF AND LOSS CENTER FOR CHILDREN, a non-profit organization of caregiving professionals and volunteers committed to supporting grieving York County children and their families.

The yearly Community All Saints Day Service offers area survivors the opportunity to come together to celebrate the lives of their loved ones and offer mutual support to one another, notes Jennifer Hartenstein McGraw, Community Relations Director at J.J. Hartenstein Mortuary, Inc., which provides logistical and financial support for the All Saints’ Day Service .  The ceremony is also an important time for those who continue to work through the grieving process.  It’s one way our community can extend a hand to those who are bereaved ­ by acknowledging their pain, validating their need to grieve, and offering a time of remembrance and hope so that they might be uplifted as they move through grief toward healing.

For further information about this year’s Community All Saints’ Day Service, please contact J.J. Hartenstein Mortuary, Inc. by calling 717.235.3857 (New Freedom) or 717.993.2307 (Stewartstown).