All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friend,

‘Yesterday I visited the bishop’. I didn’t actually, but if I had, that is what I would say. Were I an American-English speaker I would say, ‘yesterday I visited with the bishop’. Some deplore this sort of transatlantic usage. They will tell you that ‘visit’ is a transitive verb which requires an object (as every child educated more than 50 years ago will immediately cry). You ‘visit’ a friend, say, or an art-gallery or, nowadays, a website. Introduce the ‘with’ and you confuse things. ‘I visited with the bishop’, the pedant will say, can only mean that the bishop accompanied me on a visit; I must then add where we merrily went, the bishop and I, or whom we visited. To me this use of ‘with’ does sound odd, but whether or not it is something called ‘good English’ (a concept without much objective meaning as far as I can see), the American usage permits a useful distinction. Visiting someone is relational; visiting a place is not. Another person is involved, even if only to slam the door in your face (the concept of visiting most familiar to Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons). That essential relational aspect of a visit is expressed by the American idiom, however unfamiliar it sounds to us: it makes it clear that the bishop is party to my visit. ‘English English’ does not distinguish grammatically between visiting the bishop and visiting the lavatory.

The last Sunday of Advent always focuses on Mary and this year we hear the story of the Visitation. When contemplating the Visitation, that idiom that some would call ‘bad English’ makes excellent theology. We may gladly celebrate the occasion when Mary ‘visited with’ her kinswoman Elizabeth (and of course not only those two, but also the two unborn children, are an active part of the ‘visiting with’). Elizabeth must be as much in focus as Mary for the story to make sense: it is her day too. Medieval Franciscan piety used to imagine this as a larger family get-together, a happy party including Joseph and Zechariah (and two unborn children who also insist on being noticed). It is much more than a quiet conversation between two women. ‘A blessed company’ is meeting here. In Elizabeth’s exultant exclamation, in John’s joyful leaping, above all in Mary’s jubilant Magnificat, there is an anticipation of heaven.

But there is more to the story of the Visitation. Visiting is an excellent thing for all of us to do. To visit is godly; it is what God does. ‘In the time of this mortal life’ Jesus Christ ‘came to visit us in great humility.’ Visiting is what Jesus did, both by his incarnation and in his Palestinian ministry: it was costly and relational. Because many of us have forgotten how to visit with this level of engagement, we can fail to appreciate much in the Bible that turns on the importance of the giving and receiving of visits and the courtesies that must accompany them. We might remember the three men appearing from nowhere at the door of Abraham’s tent and how Abraham made haste to make them welcome (Gen. 18.1-8); we recall, by contrast, the perfunctory reception Jesus received in the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7.36-50 – the passage where a woman washes Jesus’ feet with expensive ointment, while the host has failed to offer even the basic courtesy of foot-washing with water).

Another text, towards the end of the Bible, touches on visiting. ‘I have much to write to you, but I do not want to use paper and ink. Instead, I hope to visit you and talk to you face to face, so that our joy may be complete’ (2 Jn 12). ‘Our joy’, notice. We can’t be sure who the author of 2 John was; but ‘visit and talk to you face to face’, notice you, regard you and enter generously into your life, is surely the meaning of Christmas.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Michael Bowie, Assistant Priest 
All Saints Margaret Street

Please pray for those who have asked for our prayers: Asia Bibi, John Bailey, John Bradshaw, Fr Allan Buick, James Cary-Elwes, Ian Coull, Dennis Davis, Mark Dougly, Kate Down, David Fettke, Jonty Gordon, Fr Alan Gyle, Lewis Harvey, Gwyneth Hopkins, Pat Hunt, David Jewkes, Alice Jullien, Andrew Laird, Tom Leader, Elizabeth Livingstone, Christine Loffty, Fr Frank Marriott, Miriam Nelson, David Pearce, Father Gerald Reddington, Canon John Rees, Jock Scott, Patricia Searle, Stella Skinner and Helen, Rose Stephens, Judy Stewart, Buzz Stokes and Christine van Dyck.  

For the recently departed: Mah, Geoff Dell, Peter Thompson, Sr Frances Claire SSM (Funeral 23/12/2015 10.30am), Thomas Markey, Robin Fletcher (former Administrator of the All Saints Foundation and for whom a High Mass of Requiem will be held at All Saints on Thursday 28 January at 11am), Valmai Jewkes, Mary Marriott, Margaret Chester and Basil Jones (Priest).

Remember past priests, benefactors, friends, and all whose year’s mind occurs this week including: Lily Louise King, Jack Monk, Charles Hillier, Adam Reddington, Harry Nuttall, Elizabeth Ross, Anthony Creek (All Saints’ Chorister), Richard Routledge (Sub-Deacon & former member of the PCC), Helen Turner, Harold Pobjoy (Priest), Ann Scott, Cynthia Tucker, Miriam Smith, Augustus Thompson, Paul de Fortis (Priest), Doreen Forde, Hugh Warren (Priest), Lennox Berkeley

WORSHIP THIS SUNDAY 20 DECEMBER – FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT
HIGH MASS, 11am
Preacher: Fr Julian Browning
Missa Ave Maria – Palestrina
The Rose of Bethlehem – Murray

HOLY BAPTISM, 3pm – Amalia Cicely Portman and Helena Leonhardt are being baptised. Please pray for these children and their families.

CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm
Preacher: The Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses
Fauxbourdons – Tomkins
Canite tuba in Sion – Guerrero

CHRISTMAS WEEK SERVICES

CANDLE-LIT FESTIVAL OF NINE LESSONS and CAROLS
Monday 21 December 2015, 6pm
Followed by mince pies and mulled wine.
All welcome – please bring some friends.
PLEASE NOTE: The collection at this service will be in aid of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East – a small UK-Based charity working in northern Iraq, Jordan, Israel and Palestine, providing food, medical relief and accommodation to refugees in the camps and to the internally displaced in Iraq who have been made homeless by Isis.

CHRISTMAS EVE Midnight Mass & Blessing of the Crib
Thursday 24 December 11pm
Preacher: The Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses
Missa Sancti Nicolai – Haydn
Tomorrow shall be my dancing day – anon. arr Willcocks

CHRISTMAS DAY High Mass
Friday 25 December 11am
Preacher: Fr Michael Bowie
Spatzenmesse – Mozart
In dulci jubilo – trad German, arr Pearsall

WORSHIP NEXT SUNDAY 27 DECEMBER – ST JOHN, APOSTLE and EVANGELIST
HIGH MASS, 11am
Preacher: Fr Michael Bowie
Mass in G minor – Rheinberger
I sing of a maiden – Hadley 

THERE IS NO CHORAL EVENSONG

Monday 28 December – BANK HOLIDAY – 12 noon Mass only

Friday 1 January 2016 – BANK HOLIDAY – 12 noon Mass only

For full service information over Christmastide: see: www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk.

PARISH NOTICES

CHURCH ARMY HOSTEL CHRISTMAS APPEAL
Thank you to everyone who kindly donated small gifts to the Hostel for Homeless Women over the recent weeks. A substantial delivery was made by car on Friday 11 December and was much appreciated.

PARISH CAROL SINGING 
Thank you to all the kind volunteers who turned out last night to sing in the Parish in aid of the West London Day Centre & the Church Army Hostel for Homeless Women in Marylebone. Over £200 was raised and a lot of this year’s Christmas services postcards distributed, so we hope to have some new faces with us in the coming days. 

NEW POSTCARDS AVAILABLE
Now that the Church has been re-lit following the big Restoration Appeal and Electrical Renewal Project, we have been able to take some new photographs and create some new All Saints postcards. These are on sale, and proving popular, in the Parish Shop on Sundays and from the Parish Office (Mon – Fri 10 – 5) and from Church Watchers during the week in Church. Price: 30p each or a special deal of 4 for £1. The first set of postcard images are of: the High Altar, Christ in Majesty, the West window and the Chancel ceiling. Further images we hope to follow in 2016 will include: Our Lady and the Lady Altar.

CAROL SERVICES
On Tuesday we had a successful Christmas Charity Concert in aid of Worldwide Cancer Research – with the All Saints Choir and special guest mezzo-soprano Worldwide Cancer Research charity ambassador Deborah Humble. After the service guests enjoyed mulled wine and mince pies in Church with the trustees of and the scientists funded by the charity.

Today we host our Lunchtime Carol Service at 12.30pm. Mince pies and mulled wine served afterwards in the Courtyard (as the splendidly mild weather continues). We have an enlarged choir for this service this year and Timothy Byram-Wigfield, Director of Music, has re-shaped the musical offering, which we hope will delight a good number of people working in the area, taking a break at a busy time of year.

Please see the noticeboard in Church where other events may be advertised as space is limited in the Newsletter.

SERVICES & EVENTS FOR YOUR 2016 DIARIES – at ALL SAINTS

Wednesday 6 January 2016, 6.30pm
THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD – HIGH MASS
Missa Brevis in B flat, K275 – Mozart
The Three Kings – Cornelius arr Atkins
Preacher: Right Rev’d Martin Seeley, Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich   

Sunday 10 January 2016
BAPTISM OF CHRIST – HIGH MASS, 11am
Missa Euge Bone – Tye     Kyrie – Missa de Angelis
Verbum caro factum est à 6 – Hassler

EPIPHANY CAROL SERVICE, 6pm
A service of Readings and Music by candlelight for Epiphany with the Choir of All Saints

There is a HIGH MASS OF REQUIEM for ROBIN FLETCHER at 11am, Thursday 28 January 2016. Preacher: Canon David Hutt.

ORGAN RECITALS 2016 – all on Sunday at 7.15pm following Benediction
24 January – Charles Andrews
20 March – Palm Sunday – Laurence Long
22 May – Trinity Sunday – David Graham, Organist and Director of Music at The Jesuit Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street Mayfair
3 July- Timothy Byram-Wigfield
18 September – Charles Andrews
20 November Christ the King – Charles Andrews

SMALL CHOIRS FESTIVAL 2016 – Saturday 6 February, 2 – 6pm
Small Choirs was set up in 2004 to support church choirs with few or no men by organising choral festivals with a repertoire that such choirs could manage in their own churches without further support, and also by providing suitable music for such choirs in downloadable form on the internet. The website now has over 700 pieces of music suitable for such choirs and hundreds of choirs around the globe (from every continent except Antarctica) are using the site and receiving the regular newsletter and updates.

The 2016 festival is being held in All Saints. After an afternoon of rehearsing, a Festival Service will be held at 5pm, with Fr. John Pritchard presiding, at which the festival pieces will be sung within a framework of well-known hymns and readings.

The Small Choirs Festivals are ecumenical in nature and, in previous years, church choirs from all the major denominations have been represented. One of the special features of the festivals is that participation is not restricted to small choirs only. Anyone who supports the ideals of the organisation is welcome to join in, whether from a large choir themselves or just a member of the congregation of the host church. So, if anyone from All Saints would like to be part of the festival, just access the website (www.small-choirs.org.uk/feb2016), see what is being sung, and fill in the online form. Alternatively, ring Philip Norman, on 020 8519 6491.

Even if you are not available to sing, do support the concluding festival from 5 – 6pm.

The organisers of the Small Choirs Festival, Philip Norman, Philip Luke, and Glynne Williams are grateful for the opportunity to perform in All Saints, and thank Fr. Michael Bowie for extending the initial invitation.

EVENTS FOR JANUARY 2016 BEYOND ALL SAINTS

CHURCHES TOGETHER IN WESTMINSTER 2016 AGM followed by a Panel Discussion to be held Monday, 18 January 2016 at 6:30pm at St George’s Church, Hanover Square, W1S 1FX. Everyone is invited. Followed by refreshments. Panel discussion:

MASS MIGRATION: CHURCHES’ ROLE – (How do we respond? What do we want? What do we do? What is a migrant? What is a refugee?)
Speakers:
Julian Coman (Assistant Editor, The Observer)
Revd Bob Fyffe (General Secretary, Churches Together in Britain & Ireland)
Ambra Longatti (International development project worker)
Revd Nadim Nassar (Director, Awareness Foundation for Syria)

PANCAKE PARTY AT ST CYPRIAN’S – Tuesday 9 February
Fr Gerald Beauchamp writes: ‘All being well the new kitchen and toilets at St Cyprian’s should be finished by the end of January. To celebrate and to test them out informally St Cyprian’s is planning to have a pancake party on Tuesday 9 February starting at 7.30pm. I realise that you may already have plans that evening but you are very welcome to come if you are free. We will do something more official by way of thanksgiving on St Cyprian’s Day (Thursday 15 September) but that’s a bit long to wait.’ Please let Fr Gerald Beauchamp know if you can come on 9 February. E: Gerald.beauchamp@btconnect.com. Thank you.

ALL SAINTS MISSION ACTIVITIES 

ONGOING SUPPORT for HOMELESS PEOPLE through: 
MARYLEBONE PROJECT run by the CHURCH ARMY – A Day Centre, Residential and Transitional accommodation provider, re-settlement project and Educational and Training Unit for women. The Emergency Bed Unit – for which we have for some years helped to provide the funds for one of the 4 beds –offers a safe haven and refuge for women escaping domestic violence, financial crisis, sexual exploitation and mental health issues. 

Year Round Support – we also support the Marylebone Resettlement Project with non-perishable food and toiletries or household necessities like cutlery or bed linen/blankets. 
Thank you to everyone who contributes food and household essentials via the basket in Church or handed in to the Parish Office. Please continue to donate these so we can help more people in need as the cold weather begins.  

Day-to-day Support – we respond to the needs of homeless people who visit the church, providing luncheon vouchers for the West London Day Centre for rough sleepers who apply to the office and allowing a few individuals, who need a place to shelter or sleep during the day, to rest in the back of the church. We have created an information resource for Church Watchers, giving useful advice to homeless and vulnerable people seeking particular support or services. In the face of a rising tide of homelessness in London, please help us fund and support people in need through our Mission activities.

Want to help someone sleeping rough but don’t know how? 
Call Streetlink on 0300 500 0914 and they will get a visit from the local Street Team who can put them in contact with the services they may need. 

FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS OR ASSISTANCE FROM ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET:- 
* If you would like to encourage others to take an interest in All Saints/keep up with what is happening here, please forward this email on to them, or to people you would like to invite to services or tell them about our websitewww.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk, which has a full colour 360 virtual tour for viewing the wonderfully restored interior of the Church – seewww.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk/history/virtualtour – before a visit or if unable to travel. 

* If you know of others (near or far) who would like to receive this regular update on what’s happening at All Saints please encourage them to sign up for the email on the All Saints website – see the tab News & Events> Weekly Newsletter. 

* If you would like prayers offered at All Saints, please email the Parish Administrator Mrs Dee Prior at: astsmgtst@aol.com. Or make use of the prayer request facility on the website at: www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk/prayer. 

* If you would like any pastoral assistance, please do not hesitate to contact:

Tthe Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses: alanmoses111@gmail.com. 

Or Assistant Priest Fr Michael Bowie: mnrbowie@hotmail.com.

DAILY SERVICES AT ALL SAINTS 
On major weekday feasts, High Mass is sung at 6.30pm 

SUNDAYS in Church 
Low Mass 6.30pm (Saturday), 8am and 5.15pm. Morning Prayer 10.20am
HIGH MASS AND SERMON, 11am and   
CHORAL EVENSONG, SERMON and BENEDICTION, 6pm. 

MONDAY – FRIDAY
Morning Prayer 7.30am
Low Mass – 8am, 1.10pm and 6.30pm
Evening Prayer 6pm
(Except Bank Holidays – 12 noon Mass only)

SATURDAY 
Morning Prayer 7.30am
Low Mass – 12 noon and 6.30pm (First Mass of Sunday) 
Evening Prayer 6pm

Confessions 
A priest is available for confessions/counsel Monday – Friday from 12.30-1pm and at 5.30pm Monday – Saturday, or by appointment. (Special arrangements apply in Lent and for Holy Week.)

www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk and e-mail: astsmgtst@aol.com