Candle Lighting Ceremony of the Compassionate Friends / Memorial Service for Children.
This Sunday evening, December 12th, at Holy Cross Orthodox Church, there will be a Candle Lighting Ceremony of the Compassionate Friends, an organization of people who have lost a child. Everyone, whether Orthodox or not, who has suffered the passion of the death of a child, whether that child was young, an adult, or unborn, is invited to come and stand together and light a candle. Please share this invitation with anyone you know who may be interested.
Holy Cross Orthodox Church is located on the property of Christ Presbyterian Church, which is at 645 Greensboro Road in High Point, NC 27260. Maps and directions are available on this site.
Candles will be lit at 7:00 PM, so please arrive well before then so everyone will be ready at the appointed time. Candles will remain lit until 8:00.
Following the lighting of the candles, there will also be an Orthodox Christian memorial service for children. Father Paul Schellbach will serve.
Here is some more information on the Compassionate Friends, and on this ceremony, taken from their web site.
The Compassionate Friends Worldwide Candle Lighting unites family and friends around the globe in lighting candles for one hour to honor and remember children who have died at any age from any cause. As candles are lit at 7 p.m. local time, creating a virtual wave of light, hundreds of thousands of persons commemorate and honor the memory of children in a way that transcends all ethnic, cultural, religious, and political boundaries.
Now believed to be the largest mass candle lighting on the globe, the Worldwide Candle Lighting, a gift to the bereavement community from The Compassionate Friends, creates a virtual 24-hour wave of light as it moves from time zone to time zone. Hundreds of formal candle lighting events are held and thousands of informal candle lightings are conducted in homes as families gather in quiet remembrance of children who have died, but will never be forgotten.
Holy Cross Orthodox Church, is joining the Compassionate Friends in commemorating the falling asleep of all children. Through the memorial service, we celebrate the memory of the child, and we give hope and a Christian message of comfort to the grieving parents.