It's time to share news from St. Luke's Cemetery. Our Service of Remembrance took place in November to honour the veterans in St. Luke's Cemetery. This newsletter includes links to pictures from this event. I hope you enjoy seeing them! 

At Fantastic Friday on November 7th, we assembled remembrance pots to put on the veterans' graves. Youth and adults added rosemary, a Canadian flag, and a poppy cross to the pots. We also made poppy banners to hang in the church.

The weather for our Service of Remembrance on Sunday, November 9th, was bright and sunny. Partway through the service, we moved from inside the church to the cemetery where we recognized the 196 veterans resting in St. Luke's Cemetery.

A Video of the Service of Remembrance can be found HERE.

At the end of October, we had the oak trees in the cemetery trimmed to cut out dead branches and reshape the trees.

We also noted two trees which were either partly or fully dead and contacted Saanich as they are on the cemetery/ boulevard border. One was a Lombardy Poplar with a dead leader in its upper canopy. A crew from Saanich removed the poplar on November 21st.

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 tomorrow, Sunday, December 21st. 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 carols, candles, and Christingle oranges for the children;
Christmas Eve - 8 pm - A Family Communion Service with carols, candles, a choir, and a handbell choir. A pre-service Carol Sing will start at 7:45 pm.
Christmas Day - 10 am - A Family Communion Service with carols, readings, and prayers.

All are welcome at all of these services.

The 8 pm service on Christmas Eve will be livestreamed at THIS LINK.

Four times a year St. Luke's produces a parish magazine, called The Prescription. Stories of those resting in St. Luke's Cemetery are often featured in issues of The Prescription.

The Christmas 2025 issue of St. Luke's Prescription is now available to download from the link below.

Print copies of The Prescription are available on the table in front of the Church Office and in the church. If you would like a copy mailed to you, please contact Barb and we will mail you a copy.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue. To view previous issues of St. Luke's Prescription, please visit the Prescription Archives page.

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 Here 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 big, ongoing project!

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

Blessings for 2026, too!

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