The observances at All Saints Church, an Episcopal parish downtown, and at two Catholic parishes, St. Andrew in Old Pasadena and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on East Orange Grove Boulevard, include remembering, by name, people who died in the past year. Clergy and staff at all three also described continuing support for people affected by the Eaton Fire, which began Jan. 7, 2025.
Remembering “isn’t just a private experience, but it’s something, again, that we practice together,” said Rodell Jefferson, director of public relations and communications at All Saints Church.
All Saints, at 132 N. Euclid Ave., observes All Saints Sunday as its parish feast day, when it traditionally honors relatives and friends who have died within the past year, according to the church’s announcement. At every service Nov. 1, a memorial book containing the names of loved ones will be placed on the altar, and worshippers are invited to look in it for the name of the person they love.
A spoken service begins at 7:30 a.m. in the chapel and is also offered on Zoom. At the 10 a.m. Eucharist, which will be livestreamed, the Coventry Choir and Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Weicheng Zhao, the church’s director of music, will offer Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. Incense will be used at that service, and incense-free seating is available outside on the lawn.
At 9 a.m. in the Guild Room, Jeannie Cobb will lead an introduction to the Requiem, a work the church’s announcement notes Fauré himself called a “lullaby of death.”
From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sweetland Hall will host a Día de los Muertos art and culture workshop and exhibition of work by local artists and musicians, including a talk by church member Oscar Alcántara on customs such as ofrendas. All are invited, and the church asks guests to RSVP at carrilloc@sbcglobal.net.
At 5 p.m., a bilingual Spanish-English Día de los Muertos service will include prayer, music and an ofrenda where worshippers may place photos, mementos or names of loved ones who have died. Bishop Naudal Alves Gomes, a former primate of the Anglican church in Brazil who now serves as a bishop missioner in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, will preach, and the Rev. Tim Rich, the church’s priest-in-charge, will preside.
An ofrenda set up primarily through the leadership of the church’s Latino and Hispanic ministry already stands in the sanctuary, where people can leave flowers, photographs and other small items, Jefferson said. When people name someone, he said, they are “calling up a particular person with a particular life, a person that was loved, a person who loved and was loved in the world.”
At St. Andrew Catholic Church, 311 N. Raymond Ave., All Saints’ Day will be celebrated at the parish’s eight regular Sunday Masses, beginning with the 5 p.m. Saturday vigil. “Well, it’s a little bit different this year because All Saints Day falls on a Sunday,” said Father Marcos Gonzalez, the pastor, who said the parish normally adds Masses for the feast.
On Monday, Nov. 2, St. Andrew will hold its annual All Souls’ Day Memorial Mass in the evening, after the regular 8:15 a.m. Mass. The names of everyone in the parish who died over the past year will be read and included in the prayer of the faithful, and the Mass will be sung to Fauré’s Requiem by the parish’s full choir, Gonzalez said. He said he sends a personal invitation to every family that had a death this year.
The Mass is “a kind of a trilingual celebration because we have English and Spanish and then the mass parts are all in Latin, which binds everybody together,” Gonzalez said. Ofrendas and similar customs are fine as cultural traditions but are not part of the Catholic liturgy, so they are not part of the Mass, he said.
Attendance has grown every year, and the Mass is always full, Gonzalez said. “It amazes me how moving that is for people,” he said. “There’s no obligation for them to come, and yet everybody comes.”
The parish prayed at last year’s All Souls’ Mass for everyone who died and who was affected by the Eaton Fire, has prayed for them ever since and continues outreach to affected families, Gonzalez said. “We have, I think, 26 families in our school who lost their homes,” he said. “So we’re still working with them and a lot of them are rebuilding now, but it’s going to take quite some time.”
At Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church, 2640 E. Orange Grove Blvd., the parish will celebrate All Saints’ Day at five Masses, beginning with a 5 p.m. Saturday vigil, said Father Michael Ume, the pastor. On Monday, Nov. 2, Masses will be celebrated at 8:15 a.m. and 6:30 p.m., he said.
The hours between the two Monday Masses give people time to go to cemeteries to visit their loved ones, Ume said. “So then they come back in the evening for another mass.”
Through November, the parish will display a banner in the church with the names of everyone who died since last November and is asking people to bring photographs of loved ones for display in a niche, Ume said. “So people can see their loved ones who passed away, we continue to pray for them.” On Monday, he said, children at the parish school will create a Día de los Muertos altar.
Since August, Assumption has held a monthly bereavement group for people who have lost loved ones, homes or anything else, Ume said. “We have one for women, we have one for men, because sometimes people grieve differently,” he said. Two members are close to finishing their homes, he said. “So we rejoice with them.”
Visitors are welcome at all three churches, clergy and staff said. “You don’t have to be a member of All Saints to participate,” Jefferson said, adding that people may bring a memento “or nothing at all, just bring them in your hearts.” At Assumption, the first thing visitors should know “is that they are welcome,” Ume said.
Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, so clocks go back one hour Saturday evening. The City of Pasadena’s Día de los Muertos celebration runs from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, at Villa Parke Community Center, 363 E. Villa St., and community ofrendas are on display through Nov. 7 at the Hastings, La Pintoresca and Santa Catalina branch libraries.
Need to Know: All Saints Sunday at All Saints Church, 132 N. Euclid Ave., is Sunday, Nov. 1, with a 7:30 a.m. spoken service, also on Zoom; a 9 a.m. introduction to Fauré’s Requiem in the Guild Room; the Día de los Muertos Art & Culture Workshop from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Sweetland Hall, with RSVPs to carrilloc@sbcglobal.net; the 10 a.m. Eucharist with Fauré’s Requiem, also livestreamed; and the 5 p.m. bilingual Día de los Muertos service. Call (626) 796-1172 or visit allsaints-pas.org/all-saints-
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