Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

Oversized spiders hanging on front porches and cobwebs strewn across shopping aisles remind me that Halloween is just around the corner. I’ve never been a big fan of this holiday, myself, although I’m equally keen to re-claim it as a Christian thing, or at least something that has – or had – roots in the Christian experience.

That’s why the Episcopal churches in St. Mary’s County are planning an All Hallow’s Eve gathering. We want to re-claim it as ours, so to speak, and we think it’s a pretty good evangelical offering to local kids and families. Even better, this year Halloween falls on a Friday night. We can really do something fun and festive and not worry about getting the kiddos back home at such an early hour. And even though Halloween is just over one week away, the good news is that every congregation can plan to pull off something – and there’s still one Sunday in which you can make the announcement and drum up attendance!

Here are a few thoughts you may wish to incorporate in a church-based Halloween party.

• Worship. There’s a “Service for All Hallow’s Eve” in the Book of Occasional Services, and it’s got some rich and creepy readings from the bible: Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones; Saul and the witch of Endor; and the graphic depiction of the war in Heaven from Revelation. Especially if you’ve got a churchyard (graveyard) this is a perfect opportunity to design a simple and fun worship service, perhaps outdoors in the graveyard, with dramatic readings. The theological take-away for the kids and adult participants, of course, is that we can talk about these scary things and not be frightened by them, for God is our ultimate protector.

• Food. Potluck suppers are always easy and straightforward, and food always makes for a good gathering. Or maybe you can plan a make-your-own-pizza night or, even better, build a bonfire before the start of the evening and have the supplies on hand for tinfoil dinners: meat, vegetables, seasonings, and tinfoil.

• Trunk-or-treat. Halloween is also about the candy, isn’t it? Even in densely packed neighborhoods, however, I’ve found that trick-or-treating isn’t happening as much as it once did. A great and safe alternative is to have as many people as possible, those with kids and even (especially!) those grandparents and great-grandparents who no longer have kids around, show up to the church parking lot (or wherever) and park their cars in a large semi-circle. They can distribute candy from the trunk of their car or tailgate of their truck, maybe even having the kids do silly things in order to get the candy.

With worship and food and trunk-or-treating, that’s a pretty action-packed evening. And it can be pulled off with relative ease and not too much organization. This is also one of those areas in which local congregations, even non-Episcopal neighbor congregations, can collaborate and work together. Collaborating on big, seasonal events such as this not only increases the number of adult and kid participants – not to mention adult helpers – it also helps market such an event as a large-scale, genuine outreach to the wider community on the part of The Episcopal Church/the Christian Church, not just about one church’s snazzy offering in competition with others.

Happy Halloween!