All Saints Margaret Street.

The story of Abraham arguing God into sparing Sodom for the sake of a few righteous people is an extraordinary one.  This Sunday it accompanies Jesus’s teaching on prayer in Luke 11, but is worth considering in its own right for what it says about God and about our calling to intercede on behalf of others.

The story is part of an argument in the Old Testament about the nature of God. Is God just there to keep order and dole out punishment for wrong-doing; a combination of policeman and prosecutor, judge and executioner?  The majority then thought so. Many still do today. They like the idea of a god who will punish those they disapprove of.  Others, perhaps more aware of their failings, live in fear of a god made in the image of such people.

In a world in which there seems to be so much evil: we might think of the murder of a young soldier on a street in our city, or that of a Muslim grandfather on his way
home from prayers at his local mosque in Manchester, or the church organist
murdered on his way to Midnight Mass, it is easy enough to grow cynical, to
think nothing will make any difference, that evil is too overwhelming.

There is the temptation to seek in religion a sense of private comfort; in a spiritual gated community which excludes the world and its woes.

This story stands as firmly as Abraham stood before God, against the tendency to despair and the flight into a private, and ultimately selfish, world.  There is a solidarity among us and we are ‘in it together’. As the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples teaches us, we pray to “Our Father” not “My Father.” We are all God’s children.  Abraham prays for others, for people he could easily have written off. He foreshadows the one who would give himself on the cross for all the world; “the righteous for the unrighteous.” As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to share in that self-giving, in prayer and action, for all the world.

Here at All Saints, we are called to a life of prayer and of service in the midst of a
great city; one which has elements of Sodom and Babel, as well as of the new
Jerusalem. The story of Abraham reminds us that the virtue and obedience of
faithful persons, and communities, does matter. They make a difference by showing people something of a God of love and mercy.

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, Dolores King, Katherine Lee, Joshua Levy, Nick Luff, Tim Montgomery, Miriam Morris, Marimar Perez Fabo, 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, Judith Jackson-Stevens.

At the anniversary of their death (during the coming week): Edward Ashley Hobson, Herbert Palmer (Priest), Helen Clark, George Maynard, Patricia Self, George Maryon-Wilson, Francis Woodlock, Margery Duce, Winefred Cratherne, John Welch, Patricia Whatmore, Sara Stevens, Eva Eleonor Spencer, Harriet
Brownlow Byron, Mother Foundress of the All Saints Sisters of the Poor (1887),
Donald Scott, Mona Morgan.

NOTICES AND NEWS

FORMER ALL SAINTS’ ORGAN SCHOLAR IS ST ALBANS PRIZEWINNER

Simon Thomas Jacobs – who used to be organ scholar at All Saints in 2005/2006 – has gone on to even great achievement, when on Friday 19 July he won first prize and the audience prize at the prestigious St Albans Organ Competition. Simon says he looks back on his time here with great fondness and acknowledges how much of an impact former Director of Music, Paul Brough, and All Saints Church had on his development as a musician and organist.

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’s, Bethnal Green. Mass Setting: Missa ‘Assumpta est Maria’—Palestrina. Anthem: Assumpta est Maria—Philips.

Saturday 17 August, 3pm, POETRY TEA on the theme of ‘Being a Woman Poetically’ at the Church of the Annunciation, Bryanston Street, Marble
Arch W1H 7AH. 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

Tuesday 17 – Sunday 22 September, 12 – 6pm – JOHN LEWIS PARTNERSHIP ARTS & CRAFT CLUB 2013, All Saints Parish Room – Free of charge.

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. Programme includes works by Bach, Franck and Heiller. Retiring collection for the All Saints Choir and Music Trust (suggested donation £3.50).