It's again time to share some news from St. Luke's Cemetery. Several events and services took place in November to honour the veterans in St. Luke's Cemetery. This newsletter includes links to pictures I wanted to share with you. I hope you enjoy seeing them! 

After a short service in the church to honour our saints for All Saints Day, we moved outside to the cemetery.

The rain held off and we were blessed with a relatively warm day as we held the outside part of our Service of Remembrance on November 5th to honour the 161 veterans resting or commemorated in St. Luke's cemetery. A remembrance pot with rosemary, a Canadian flag, and a poppy cross was placed on each of the veterans' graves. Youth and adults at our November 3rd Fantastic Friday assembled the remembrance pots. 

The Service of Remembrance booklet, the leaflet from the service listing the veterans' names, and the updated veterans' list can viewed or downloaded from the link below.  If you know of other veterans, whose names should be added to our list, please reply to this e-mail and let me know.

A video of the All Saints' Day Service and Service of Remembrance is also available to view from the link below.

On November 10^th, grade 8 students from Cedar Hill Middle School came to St. Luke’s cemetery to honour the veterans by placing painted poppy rocks on the veterans’ graves.

The students from Cedar Hill Middle School participated as part of the No Stone Left Alone Program, a national program to honour the service and sacrifice of Canada’s military by educating and inspiring youth to place poppies on veterans’ headstones.

For those of you living in the Victoria area, this e-mail is also an invitation to the Longest Night Service at St. Luke's at 7 pm this Sunday, December 17th. We know that the lead up to Christmas can be hard for many people as we struggle with life situations, because of a loss or change in our lives.

You are invited to take some time out before Christmas for this special quiet, reflective prayer service and to light a candle for hope and remembrance of a person who was special in your life.

This could be a time to honour and remember your family members or friends who reside in St. Luke's Cemetery, or other family members or friends who have passed but live on in your memories.

If you live in the area, please remember that you are always welcome at any service at St. Luke's. Maybe Christmas would be a good time to "come home to St. Luke's", a place with memories of your earlier family members.

There are lots of choices for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day:
Christmas Eve - 4 pm - Child-friendly service with Christingle oranges for the children;
Christmas Eve - 7 pm - Family Communion service with candles, carols, soloists, instrumentalists, and a choir;
Christmas Eve - 10 pm - Traditional BCP service with candles and carols;
Christmas Day - 10 am - Family Communion Service.

All are welcome at all of these services.

The 7 pm service on Christmas Eve and the 10 am service on Christmas Day will be livestreamed at THIS LINK.

This e-mail list was compiled from contact information St. Luke’s Cemetery Committee has regarding descendants, family members, and friends of people buried in St. Luke’s Cemetery. Please feel free to pass along this e-mail to friends and relatives who may be interested in this information.

Newsletters and information about special events regarding the cemetery are sent out several times a year. If you do not wish to be on this list to receive these occasional updates, please reply to this e-mail and let me know and I will take you off the list.

We also encourage you to visit the Cemetery pages of St. Luke's website. Click on the Read More button below. The Cemetery section at the website includes links to a database of veterans buried in St. Luke's Cemetery, stories of the people resting in the cemetery, and a database with names and plot locations. The database of veterans and the larger cemetery database are updated throughout the year. Please let me know if you notice information, which needs adding or correcting. Keeping the database up- to-date is a ongoing, big project!

May God's blessings be with you,
and your family and friends this Christmas.

Blessings for 2024, too!

Barb Prescott
on behalf of the Cemetery Committee
of St. Luke Cedar Hill Anglican Church