Whenever we confess our faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed, we include the affirmation: "I believe in the communion of saints." What do we mean when we say this? Who are the saints? And what is the "communion" of saints? All Saints’ Day prompts us to look for an answer to these questions.

According to the New Testament, the saints are not a select group of persons with haloes around their heads. They are simply the members of the Christian fellowship, men and women who live by faith in Jesus Christ and in whose lives the Holy Spirit is at work. When Paul wrote "to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi," or at Rome or Corinth, he meant all Christ’s people in those cities. Thus the New English Bible does not use the word "saints" at all but replaces it with the term "God…