All Saints Parish Newsletter 19th July 2013 | All Saints Margaret Street All Saints Margaret Street | All Saints Parish Newsletter 19th July 2013

All Saints Parish Newsletter 19th July 2013

Friday 19 July 2013 at 11:45

All Saints Margaret Street
E-Newsletter 19 July, 2013

Dear friends,

This weekend, a group of us are off to Walsingham for the All Saints parish pilgrimage.

As well as being an escape from the sweltering heat of a central London which
seems to have gone straight from winter to a heat wave, it will give us time to
do what we see Mary of Bethany doing in this Sunday’s gospel: to listen to
Jesus.

Martha and Mary are often seen as representing two options: work and prayer, as if these are mutually exclusive.  In fact, all of us must be Martha, some of the time. Anyone who has ever stayed with a religious community, even a contemplative one, knows that meals do not cook themselves, nor do flights of angels descend to do the washing up and other domestic chores. Community life is ordered to make time for these tasks and for prayer.

Most of us have to cook and clean and shop, as well as do our daily work. What we often lack is a rule, an order in our life which helps us chose “the better part”:
listening to Jesus. Most of us struggle to get the balance right. We complain that we have no time to pray; even a few minutes. Yet, we seem to find time to watch our favourite TV programme.  The 10 o’clock news or an episode of our favourite soap lasts half an hour. We need a discipline.

My experience, as one who has spent decades trying to pray, is that I find that if
I maintain the routines of prayer: the daily rhythm of office and mass and
meditation; then prayer happens spontaneously at other times too. It spills over into other areas of life. This can be when I’m doing routine tasks which don’t require too much mental effort, the ironing for example: praying like Brother Lawrence among the pots and pans. It can be as I’m walking somewhere or
travelling on a bus or the tube.

Over the years, a deeper sense of Christ’s presence everywhere grows out of those times when we sit at his feet in prayerful listening.

Yours in Christ,

 

Fr. Alan Moses

Please pray for: Harry Allan, Margaret Campbell, Rachel Clayton, Christopher Coleman, Sheena Cruse, Sabrina Fry, Cecil Garrett, Timothy Harding, Denise Inge, Mason Jacobsen, Katherine Lee, Joshua Levy, Nick Luff, Tim Montgomery, Martin Sargeant, Celia Shore, Stephen Short, Ian Stevens, Kate Thomas, Andrew Tillyard, Melanie Toogood,  Ambika Voke, Heather Walker, Wendy Wall. 

The recently departed: Eleanor Valerie Southcott, Isabella Lowson,
David Botsford, Bridget Dudley.

At the anniversary of their death: Anne Finley, Edward Jones, Elizabeth Pressland, John Holden (Priest), Jeffrey Tapley (2008), Ada Rivington, Peter Champion Jones, Edith Wallis, Muriel Williams, Enid Ingle, Edward Reader (Priest), David Sparrow (Priest and 10th Vicar of All Saints), Jean Neighbour,
Teresa Butler, Roy Ellis.

NOTICES AND NEWS

A NEW PARISH ADMINISTRATOR

On 4 July, five short-listed candidates were interviewed for the post of Parish Administrator at All Saints. From these, the interviewing panel, the Vicar, Churchwardens and the Personal Assistant to the Archdeacon, was unanimous in recommending to the PCC that Mrs Dee Prior (who has been working in the office part-time since Dennis Davis left) was the best candidate and the Council accepted this recommendation.

Dee has extensive management and administrative experience in the arts world and comes to us most recently from the National Portrait Gallery, having worked
previously for Manchester City Council, at the Royal Festival Hall, the Natural
History Museum, London Business School and Tate. She will begin working in the
office full time in the second week of September. Until then, except when Dee is on holiday in early August, she will be in the office three days a week.

We are all most grateful to and want to thank those who have helped staff the Parish Office on other days over recent months: Christine Brown, Janet Drake, Keith Postance, Chris Self, Chris Swift, Geoffrey Woodcock and Martin Woolley.

All Saints nominated as one of the ‘UK’s Favourite Churches’

As part of its 60th anniversary celebrations, the National Churches Trust this week  revealed some of ‘The UK’s Favourite Churches’, as chosen by 60 top people from the world of politics, entertainment, journalism and academia. All Saints was nominated by Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber, composer.

The National Churches Trust’s ‘The UK’s Favourite Churches’ initiative aims to promote awareness of churches as some of the UK’s most important and best loved buildings and of the need for continuing funding to keep them in good repair for future generations. Full details of ‘The UK’s Favourite Churches’ can be found at www.favouritechurches.org.uk.

SAFEGUARDING AT ALL SAINTS
In compliance with diocesan Safeguarding policy, the PCC has appointed two Safeguarding Officers at All Saints. They are: Janet Drake – an experienced children’s social worker, who is our Safeguarding Officer for Children and Chris Self, Churchwarden and with long working experience in the field of mental health,
who is our Safeguarding Officer for Vulnerable Adults. Please, do not
hesitate to contact them if you have concerns about safeguarding matters.  Under the diocesan policy, all the clergy and our safeguarding officers will undergo criminal record checks and safeguarding training.

FUTURE EVENTS AT ALL SAINTS AND ELSEWHERE

Sunday 28 July 4pm , St Nicholas Society Meeting and Prayer Office – St Nicholas Church, St Nicholas at Wade, Thanet, KENT – A28 Canterbury Road. To register, phone: 01843 447791. All welcome. Come and learn about how St Nicholas can help you. E: nicholasmyrabari@gmail.com.

Thursday 15 August, 6.30pm – ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, Procession and High Mass. Preacher: Prebendary Alan Green, St John Bethnal Green. Mass Setting: Missa ‘Assumpta est Maria’—Palestrina. Anthem: Assumpta est Maria—Philips.

Saturday 17 August, 3pm, POETRY TEA at the Church of the Annunciation, Bryanston Street Marble Arch.  All welcome. Please bring poems or prose
on the subject of ‘womanhood/ motherhood’. We have chosen this theme as we
are celebrating the Feast of the Assumption that week and it seems a good
opportunity to explore what poets and writers have said about the feminine
in our culture.  To attend, please contact Gillian Dare (T: 020 8579 5898 or email daregillian@yahoo.co.uk) or Sandra Wheen (T: 020 7637 8456) or Father Gerald (gerald.beauch@btconnect.com) leaving your name and phone number if you ring.  Cost £6 in aid of the All Saints Restoration Fund.

SEPTEMBER DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES:

Monday 9 September – MEETING OF THE ALL SAINTS PCC

Friday 13 September, 7pm for 7.30pm – QUIZ NIGHT AT ST. CYPRIAN’S

Saturday 14 September – RIDE + STRIDE

Sunday 15 September – ST. CYPRIAN’S DAY and a MEETING OF THE MISSION COMMITTEE

Tuesday 17 – Sunday 22 September 12 – 6pm – JOHN LEWIS PARTNERSHIP ARTS & CRAFT CLUB 2013

Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 September – OPEN HOUSE WEEKEND with talks on the history of All Saints by John Forde, Churchwarden.

Sunday 29 September – ORGAN RECITAL (after Benediction) at 7.15pm – CHARLES ANDREWS, Associate Director of Music.