THE 24 churches that make up the Quantock Deanery held a special festival Eucharist at Stogursey Church to celebrate All Saints Day on Sunday (October 29).
Well over 200 attended and were led in hymns and music by a massed choir of all the choirs in the deanery.
Rural dean the Rev Jon Rose was the celebrant, and the preacher was Bishop at Lambeth and to the armed forces, the Rt Rev Nigel Stock.
He preached a gentle but poignant message concentrating on Paul’s letter to the young Church at Ephesus and the inheritance Christians have in Jesus Christ.
Prayers for a troubled world and the work of the deanery were led during the service by Patrick Weld, the Quantock Deanery children and youth adviser.
The massed choir sang a Eucharist setting based on a folk song collected by Cecil Sharp in several villages on the Quantocks.
It was written by rector of the Quantock villages benefice, the Rev Chloe Kingdon, who said the Quantock Deanery looks towards being a “Church without walls”.
The organ drew the worship to a close with H Gerber’s intervention in C.
After the service, many stayed for lunch in the Stogursey Victory Hall.
“The whole occasion was a truly celebratory act of Christian witness as numerous church communities came together offering support and fellowship to one another,” she added.