All Saints Parish Newsletter
Friday 12 April 2013 at 10:51
Dear Friends,
With changes at the top in both Rome and Canterbury, styles of leadership are in our minds at the moment. What differences will follow the retirement of two academic theologians? What will an archbishop who began life in the oil business bring to Lambeth Palace? We have already seen very visible changes in style with a Bishop of Rome less given to baroque court protocol and the papal dressing up box.
Sunday’s readings give us the two great leaders of the early Church. We hear of both the conversion of St. Paul from Acts and the commissioning of St. Peter from St. John. What is usually called Paul’s conversion, might equally well be described as his commission as apostle to the gentiles.
Peter and Paul represent two enduring elements within the life of the Church: order and diversity, the Catholic and the Reformed. Peter represents that holy order without which it would disintegrate. Paul, that capacity to do something new, to cross boundaries, without which the Church then would have remained a Jewish sect, and now would become introverted and defensive.
If we read Acts and Paul’s letters closely, we soon see that things were more complicated than that. At mass on Easter Day, we heard of Peter’s role in the conversion of Cornelius the Roman centurion and his household. Equally, Paul’s letters demonstrate again and again his concern for the good order of the Church.
The two did clash at Antioch when Peter sided with those who wished to impose the Jewish law on converts and Paul confronted him to his face. We don’t have Peter’s version of this incident. Perhaps it was thought best to draw a veil over this example of Petrine fallibility.
Both apostles were to be martyred in Rome, although Peter has received much more attention in the city and its church than has Paul. The great basilica built over the burial place of Peter is at the heart of things, while that of St. Paul is “outside the Walls;” an echo in geography of the rather angular relationship between the two apostles and the two traditions they have come to represent.
But the two tendencies have to be held together, especially in a Church like ours which understands itself to be both Catholic and Reformed, Scriptural and Sacramental. Some of us will tend in one direction or the other, but that does not excuse us from the responsibility to learn from the other and to incorporate it into our common and individual lives for the sake of the mission of Christ to which both Peter and Paul gave their lives.
Yours in Christ,
Alan Moses
Please pray for: Harry Allan, Eleanor Chapman, Rachel Clayton, Richard Evans, Rosie Flack, Charles Forker, Cecil Garrett, Timothy Harding, Mason Jacobsen, Joshua Levy, Sheila Lewis, Tim Montgomery, Tony Pulleyn, Martin Sargeant, Celia Shore, Stephen Short, Brian Sparkes, Ian Stevens, Andrew Tillyard, Melanie Toogood, Heather Walker, Wendy Wall
The recently departed: Canon Philip Crosfield, Robin Kay, The Revd Alison Warner, Pamela Benson, Edna Feakin, Susan McDowell, Gwen Graumann, Christopher Ryan, Margaret Hilda Thatcher.
At the anniversary of their death: Christopher Dean, Evelyn Cowie, Mary Gotto, Geoffrey Heald (Priest), Marilyn Goggin, Basil Harris, Margarita Ethel Clark, Judith Barrett, Sadie Campbell, Tim Hewlett, Hugh Whitlow, John Rex Halliwell, Irene Vile, Kathleen Bates, Henry FalconerBarclay Mackay (fifth vicar of All Saints), Margaret Forsyth, Constance Cavan, Alicia Bolton and Priscilla Black.
SATURDAY EVENSONG –
At All Saints 13th April at 4pm, sung by former choristers.
Each year, former choristers from the days of the Choir School gather for a reunion and to sing Evensong in All Saints under the direction of Louis Halsey, one of their number. This year they will sing a setting of the evening canticles specially composed for them by Dr. Harry Bramma who will be playing the organ at the service.
FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION –
Tuesday 16th April at 7pm
This is one of those years when Lady Day falls during Holy Week and has to be transferred. The official date is 8th April. As this falls during the school holiday, Fr. Gerald has transferred it again to Tuesday 16th April.
High Mass and Procession at 7.00pm.
Preacher: The Very Revd. David Ison, Dean of St. Paul’s.
Preacher: The Very Revd. David Ison, Dean of St. Paul’s.
ANGLICAN CATHOLIC FUTURE LAUNCH –
Thursday 18th April at 7pm Mass
Church of the Annunciation, Bryanston St.
Celebrant: The Bishop of Ely
Preacher: The Revd. Dr. Peter Groves, Vicar of St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford.
The mass will be followed by refreshments and an introduction to Anglican Catholic Future.
It will be helpful if those who intend to come could let us know, either through the events page on the website -www.anglicancatholicfuture.org or by email to the Parish Offices of All Saints or St. Matthew’s, Westminster.
VOCATIONS DAY –
Saturday 20th April, 10.30am-4pm
for men and women in the catholic tradition who are considering a vocation to the priesthood. With the Revd. Lucy Winkett and the Revd. Bernard Silverman.
Those wishing to attend should contact St. Matthew’s, Westminster.
ALL SAINTS CABARET NIGHT –
Sunday 21st April at 7.30pm
The choir will be staging another cabaret night in aid of the All Saints Restoration Fund. It will be at the Phoenix Pub in Cavendish Square, within easy walking distance of the church.
Tickets (£15 each) are on sale online at: http://www.purecharity.org./fundraiser/DC.388 or in the courtyard from Chris Self or Dee Candlin-Prior after High Mass.
POETRY TEA at Pamela’s
Saturday 27th April at 3pm on the theme Beginnings and Endings
ORGAN RECITAL – Tim Byram-Wigfield – newly appointed Director of Music at All Saints
Sunday 26th May after Evensong and Benediction
Programme includes:
Prelude & Fugue in G BWV541 – JS Bach
Vater unser im Himmelreich – Georg Bohm
Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream op 61 – Felix Mendelssohn-Bartohldy arr Gordon Nevin
Priere op 47 – Joseph Jongen
Finale from Symphonie no 8 op 42 – Charles Marie Widor
Prelude & Fugue in G BWV541 – JS Bach
Vater unser im Himmelreich – Georg Bohm
Scherzo from A Midsummer Night’s Dream op 61 – Felix Mendelssohn-Bartohldy arr Gordon Nevin
Priere op 47 – Joseph Jongen
Finale from Symphonie no 8 op 42 – Charles Marie Widor