All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friends,

Trinity 6

Years ago Enoch Powell argued in a lecture that Jesus and John the Baptist were one and the same person. When questioned over lunch about how this supposed fact had escaped the attention of so many scholars he retorted that most people’s reading of the Bible was ‘undistracted by the obvious’.

What was obvious to him was (and is) clearly not obvious to anyone else, but John the Baptist was seen as a possible Messiah in his lifetime and it was not obvious to many that Jesus was in fact the right candidate. On Sunday we hear of the passion and death of John, clearly intended by the gospel writer to show us that John foreshadowed Jesus’ death as he had his birth. The context of the telling is the corrupt court of King Herod who has already killed John: we are given the back-story to explain Herod’s fear that Jesus is in fact John the Baptist risen from the dead (presumably this is the seed of Powell’s characteristically idiosyncratic argument).

The episode and the figure of Salome have appealed to artists, novelists, playwrights and operatic composers: it is a good and slightly racy story. It is also an unusual interlude in a book otherwise solely focused on Jesus, one which may well bear witness to a parallel tradition of stories about John, otherwise lost to us.

In a world where tyrannical regimes continue to torture and martyr opponents we are right to notice the scandalous aspects of the narrative, to be reminded about the dangers of corrupt and self-serving murderers in power anywhere and to consider our response. But John would not thank us for focusing on that alone. As always, he wanted to point toward Jesus and away from himself; the gospel-writer’s instinct to use his story in this way is consistent with John’s own ministry. Like Mary, who also leads us to Jesus, this is John’s role in salvation history. Mary was not martyred as he was but, as Simeon predicted, a metaphorical sword pierced her heart at the crucifixion.

Bearing witness in any age is variously costly. We are reminded by John’s passion and death that he is also our forerunner in the faith, just as Mary, Mother of the Church, is a type of our Christian life. Our faith is intended to be visible to others by who we are and by our readiness to challenge evil, corruption and injustice. As the Prayer Book Collect for John’s Nativity (which we celebrated last month) prays:

Make us so to follow his doctrine and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching; and after his example constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake.

Yours in Christ,

Father Michael Bowie,
Assistant Priest, All Saints Margaret Street

Please pray for those who have asked for our prayers: Asia Bibi. Ella Carroll, James Cary-Elwes, Ian Coull, Paul Curno, Helen Everett, Jonty Gordon, Fr Tony Halton, Tim Harding, Yvonne Harland, Lewis Harvey, Maxwell Hutchinson, Alice Jullien, Andrew Laird, Tom Leader, Anthea Lepper, Joshua Levy, William Lightening, Christine Loffty, Simon MacGregor, Sister Martha (SMNC Tanzania), Hilary Morgan, Margaret O’Brien, David Pearce, Nick Russell, Jock Scott, Fr. Nicholas Stacey, Buzz Stokes, Christine van Dyck, Joy Wright and Marc Young.

For the recently departed: Peter Blackwell, Philip Harland (whose Funeral Mass took place at All Saints on 9 July), Betty Faulkner, Agnes Hagan, Monica O’Connor, those murdered at Emanuel Church, Charleston, Monica O’Connor, Michael Pearson (Priest), Marjory Grosvenor, Molly Leng, Hugo Gralka, those murdered in Tunisia (including specifically Janet and John Stocker), Peggy Leeman and Bruce Barnett- Cowan (Priest). 

Remember past priests, benefactors, friends, and all whose year’s mind occurs this week including: Wilfred Stansfield, Cyril Ward (Server and Benefactor who donated a silver thurible to All Saints), Mary Gaskell, Mina Robertson, James Wheen, Sheila Duggan, Richard Young, Gladys Gibbs, George Quicksmith (one time Churchwarden), Kathleen Rodger, Doris Thrift, Kathleen Wait (member of the PCC), William Hewetson, Isabel Bruxner and Kathleen Gardner.            

WORSHIP THIS SUNDAY 12 JULY – SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 
HIGH MASS, 11am 
Preacher: Fr Michael Bowie 
Missa Brevis – Leighton 
Ave Virgo sanctissima – Guerrero 

The Vicar is in York attending General Synod until 14 July.

Sunday Lunch is being cooked by Frances O’Neil. Tickets on sale in the Parish Room before and after Mass – £5.

CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm 
Preacher: Father Julian Browning 
The Gloucester Service – Howells 
Hail, gladdening light – Wood

WORSHIP NEXT SUNDAY 19 JULY – SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 
HIGH MASS, 11am
Preacher: The Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses
Missa Brevis – Gabrieli 
Exsultate Deo – Palestrina

There is no Sunday Lunch on this date as it coincides with the Parish Pilgrimage to Walsingham.

CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm
Preacher: Father Michael Bowie
The First Service – Morley
When Mary through the garden went – Stanford

NOTICES

Please mark Saturday 15 August, 12 noon in your diaries for the HIGH MASS OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY (with a circular outdoor procession of the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham from Church along Oxford Street and back to Church for the first time at All Saints). Please consider offering your services as a steward as well as attending.
If you can assist as a procession steward (essential for safety reasons) or by playing a role in the procession itself, contact Dee Prior in the Parish Office on 020 7636 1788 or see Dee or Cedric Stephens, Head Server, after High Mass. The Corpus Christi procession this year (see photos on the All Saints website) was particularly successful with choir and small marching band (with drummer) accompaniment. It attracted a goodly number of friends of All Saints from a broad range of other parishes. We should like to establish in the annual calendar a similar profile for the Feast of the Assumption so do encourage friends to attend. The opportunity to be visible in Oxford Street at lunchtime during the summer is especially welcome.

PENNY BOX COLLECTIONS (in aid of the All Saints Foundation) – COUNTING 
Please return your Penny Boxes for counting – either to Church on Sundays 12 and 19 July or to the Parish Office Monday – Friday 9am – 1pm or 2 – 5pm. Thank you!

EVENTS AT ALL SAINTS in JULY 

Thursday 9 July, 6.30pm – the FUNERAL MASS for Philip Harland took place as planned, but attendance was sadly impacted by the tube strike in London that day. If anyone would like to see the Order of Service, copies are available on the Church table and you can read the Sermon preached by the Vicar on the Church website: http://www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk/worship/sermons.
Philips’s family invited donations in his memory to the All Saints Foundation. If you would like to contribute – please use Gift Aid envelopes wherever possible and pass your contribution (cheques payable to All Saints Foundation) to the Parish Office, a Churchwarden or a Priest. Thank you. 

Saturday 11 July, PLEASE NOTE – there will not be Devotions to Our Lady of Walsingham at 11.30 am followed by Low Mass at 12 noon as the All Saints’ Cell of Our Lady of Walsingham went on pilgrimage to Salisbury Cathedral last Saturday, where the Mass was of Our Lady of Walsingham. 12 noon Low Mass will take place as usual for the Feast of St Benedict.

EVENTS ELSEWHERE in JULY and AUGUST

Friday 17 – Monday 20 July – ALL SAINTS’ PARISH PILGRIMAGE TO WALSINGHAM, led by Fr Julian Browning.

Saturday 1 August 2015 – FESTIVAL OF THE EASTERN CATHOLIC CHURCHES at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family, Duke Street, W1. 10.30am Syro-Malabar Qurbana – Sung Liturgy in English. 4.30pm Ukrainian Catholic Great Vespers in English. The day includes: Films: Kerala, Cradle of Christianity in SE Asia,Aramaic, Jesus, India & Music: the Syro-Malabar Church; a Talk: The Music of the Syro-Malabar Church by Revd Dr Joseph Palackal; The Suffering Eastern Churches: Presentation from John Newton, Aid to the Church in Need. All welcome (requested Fee – £10, including donation for Aid to the Church in Need). Please bring a packed lunch – tea and coffee provided. Booking essential at – johnchrysostom@btinternet.com.

ALL SAINTS RESTORATION PROJECT UPDATE 

The last of the long-awaited glass lampshades has now been fitted, so that all five pendant lights are fully illuminated. Still to come is the fitting of the specially made light fittings for the choir stalls (to be attached to the wrought iron grilles). When all are in place we will be able to fine-tune the settings of the overall lighting scheme, although some of this work will have to wait until the darker days of autumn.

As well as the lighting, the switchover of the complete new wiring above and below decks to new electric meters has now taken place. The smoke detection system has been installed and activated.

Funds for the project continue to be raised and the total received at the time of writing is now a splendid £409,290.

As this complex project reaches its conclusion, and the final invoices are received, we have recently had a number of generous gifts that have eliminated the loans of £35,000 that we initially relied upon for the project to get underway. Any more gifts will allow us a small reserve against the final cost of the works. If there are any surplus funds when all bills are paid, these will go towards future restoration projects at All Saints.

We are indebted to all those donors who gave so generously to replace the out-dated electrics and to relight the church so that all the achievements of earlier phases of restoration work are now revealed. Thank you! 

HOW YOU CAN HELP………. please make cheques payable to: 
All Saints Church Restoration Appeal and send them to:  
The Parish Administrator, 7 Margaret Street, London W1W 8JG. 

Please indicate where Gift Aid may be applied or send in a completed Gift Aid envelope from in church, as it increases the value of your contribution by 25% at no cost to yourself. Thank you!

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.

Seasonal Appeals – The grand total collected at All Saints for mission activities in 2014 was £6,463 through the All Saints Festival and Lent Appeals. £3,463 went to the Marylebone Project and a further £3,000 to Us (formerly USPG).

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 has contributed so generously recently – a good number of parcels and bags of food and household essentials have been left in Church or handed in to the Parish Office recently and we shall need to arrange a drop off to the Project to deliver them. Thank you!
Please continue to donate these so we can help more people in need.

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 project.

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 website www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk, which has a full colour 360 virtual tour for viewing the wonderfully restored interior of the Church – see www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk/history/virtualtour – before a visit or if unable to travel.

* If you know of others who would like to receive this correspondence 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 the 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