All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friends,

This year marks the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation.  That spiritual and political revolution was assisted by a technological one: the invention of printing. This allowed the ideas of Luther and others to spread like wildfire.

We too live in an age of technological revolution, one which generates information in such volume and at such speed that there is no way we can either assimilate or understand it.

The internet has been a great boon to us in many ways. I am able to write this to you and you are able to read it, thanks to it. However, there is no denying that, like all human inventions, it can be and is abused and corrupted. The murky world of the “Dark Net” deals in drugs and the worst kind of pornography. Criminals use the internet to steal unimaginable sums and terrorists recruit new volunteers to their poisonous causes.  Political zealots of both left and right publish vile abuse and threats aimed at those they disagree with.  Children are bullied and adults stalked by text and email.  We have seen doctors and nurses treating a child with a tragic terminal disease vilified as “baby-killers” and threatened with death.  A president of the United States tweets his rage against his opponents in the early hours of the morning.  Many people now live increasingly in an alternative world, a social media bubble, an echo chamber in which their only sources of information and opinion are those who think like them; and opinions always “trump” facts.  Not only do people produce “fake news”, they condemn any awkward facts as “fake news,” too.

Much of this is not new. Politicians have always been “economical with the truth.”  “Propaganda,” a word which used to mean the “propagation of the faith,” was long ago taken over by the likes of Goebbels and Stalin to spread their totalitarian tyrannies. But technology has given it a new potency and made it all the more risky. 

Was there ever an age when we needed more to share Solomon’s prayer for wisdom which we will hear at Mass on Sunday?  (1 Kings 3.5-12). We need to pray for wisdom to discern truth from falsehood, the real from the fake, the good from evil.  We need that wisdom which allows us to listen to different voices and not to demonize them.  That does not mean that there are not some voices which must be condemned; those which discriminate against others because of their race or class, their religion or none, their gender or sexuality.

Sunday’s Gospel ends with Jesus saying to his disciples, “Have you understood all this?”  He then goes on to say, “…every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”  (Matthew 13.51-52). 

That was what Pope Benedict was seeking to do when he tried to say that both church and world need to recover the place of reasoned understanding in our public life. Alas, there are too many strident voices in both secular and religious realms which refuse to accept this.  Among Christians there are strident voices which brandish the language of “faith” and an uncritical fundamentalist approach to scripture to deny the place of reason as a gift of God.  That is not the faith of the Church Fathers or Thomas Aquinas, of Richard Hooker and the Caroline Divines, of Maurice and Gore, Temple, Ramsey or Williams. It is not the faith of the Catholic Church.

Let us pray for the gift of that wisdom from God which is found both in the treasures of the old and in what we learn from the new.

Yours in Christ, 

Fr. Alan Moses, Vicar,
All Saints Margaret Street 

THIS WEEK’S PRAYER DIARY

Those who have asked for prayers: 
Asia Bibi, Pat Hawkins, Fr Graham Francis, Hannelore Sibley, Maria Magdalena Gemanaite, Faddy Hardo, Ken Hales, Fr Giles Fraser, Gulzari Babber, John Hughes, Ron Capon, Patricia Capon, Nancy Gardner, Katie Marko, Andrew Evans, Sarah Payne, Rodney Bickerstaffe, Ros Tagoe and Beverley Ward. 

Those known to us recently departed: 
Hugh Cox, Charlotte Nikoi, Graham Wheeler Priest, Pearl Baker, Shirley Jones, Giles Pilgrim Morris, Richard Finlay, Wesley Carr, Priest, Michael Manktelow Bp, John Wraw, Bp and Mildred Bellet.  

Remember past priests, benefactors, friends, and all whose year’s mind occurs this week:  
George Maryon-Wilson, John Gardner, Francis Woodlock, Margery Duce, Winefred Cratherne, John Welch, Patricia Whatmore, Sara Stevens, Eva Spencer, Harriet Brownlow Byron Mother Foundress of ASSP, Donald Scott, Mona Morgan and Julian Davies. 

WEEKLY NOTICES and FUTURE EVENTS 

PRUDENTIAL RIDE LONDON, Saturday 29 – Sunday 30 July
Please be aware that roads will be closed and public transport affected by this major cycling event in central London and Surrey. For more information about the impact on travel, please see https://tfl.gov.uk/status-updates/major-works-and-events/spectator-information.

THE AUGUST PARISH PAPER is due in church from today.  

MARYLEBONE PROJECT STUDY PACK APPEAL – The latest Marylebone Project Newsletter – on the Church table – describes a new initiative to support women in gaining qualifications to help them become independent. The appeal is for pens, pencils, pencil cases, pencil sharpeners, rubbers, notebooks, rucksacks, memory sticks and reusable water bottle. If anyone can provide these things, please drop them off at the Parish Office as for household items. Thank you.

Tuesday 15 August – FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY – HIGH MASS & OUTDOOR PROCESSION with choir and brass accompaniment 6.30pm 
Preacher: Fr Richard Peers, Director of Education, Diocese of Liverpool 
Mass Setting: Mozart Missa Brevis in C ‘Orgelsolo’, K.259 
Motet before procession: Elgar Ave Maria
Voluntary: Guilmant Grand Choeur in E flat (Op. 40 No 4)
The Feast of the Assumption is our major annual celebration of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. On this day, we thank God for Mary, the first Christian, and ask her prayers for all persecuted Christians. 

All are welcome to join us – please invite friends.  

WORSHIP THIS WEEK:

Sunday 30 July – Trinity 7 
11am HIGH MASS with Choir and Sermon 
Preacher: Fr Alan Moses, Vicar 
Walton Missa Brevis 
Walton Set me as a seal 

Sunday Lunch today will be our final All Saints’ lunch before the long summer break.  Frances O’Neil will be cooking Palestinian Lamb with Mediterranean salad and rice followed by Eton Mess. We look forward to welcoming both visitors and regular diners. Tickets £5 from the Parish Shop before or after Mass.

5.15pm Low Mass

6pm EVENSONG & BENEDICTION with Sermon
Preacher: Fr Barry Orford
Palestrina Magnificat Primi Toni and Nunc Dimittis à 8 
Harris Bring us, O Lord God

This Week’s Services

Monday 31 July to Friday 4 August
7.30am Morning Prayer   8am Low Mass
12.30-1pm Confessions   1.10pm Low Mass
5.30pm Confessions 6pm Evening Prayer
6.30pm Low Mass

Saturday, 5 August
12 noon Low Mass
6pm Evening Prayer 
6.30pm First Mass of Sunday

Next Sunday’s Services
6 August ~ 8^th Sunday after Trinity
The Transfiguration of Our Lord
8am Low Mass
10.20am Morning Prayer 

11am HIGH MASS with Choir & Sermon
Preacher: Fr Michael Bowie
Lobo Missa ‘Simile est regnum’
Lassus Quicumque Christum quÓ•ritis

5.15pm Low Mass

6pm SOLEMN EVENSONG& BENEDICTION with Sermon
Preacher: Fr Barry Orford
Walmisley in D Minor
Byrd Praise our Lord, all ye Gentiles

For full service information: www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk.

ALL SAINTS MISSION PROJECTS 
Our year-round fundraising efforts go to support three charities:

The Church Army hostels and programmes in Marylebone empowering homeless women into independent living.
The USPG-led UMOJA, HIV Project in Zimbabwe, enabling people living with HIV and Aids to have positive lives, and
The Soup Kitchen (American International Church, Tottenham Court Road) feeding up to 80 vulnerable people daily in central London.  

Men’s clothing especially is needed by the Jesus Centre in Margaret Street and also by the Soup Kitchen at the American International Church, both of whom provide a daily range of services to homeless people. If you have women’s or men’s clothes to give away, please bring to Church and leave at the Parish Office so we can continue to help support our neighbours’ efforts. The Church Army is now also collecting women’s clothes for their Homeless Hostel so all donations can be found a good new home!

The Soup Kitchen specifically calls for: men’s trousers (sizes 32-36) and men’s sturdy/athletic shoes (sizes 9-12 especially) and say ‘we also need men’s outerwear of all varieties and rucksacks and duffle-bags to help our guests carry their belongings!’

The Soup Kitchen team (only part-time cover) asks: ‘Please drop me a line if you are planning to drop things off here. As always, many thanks for your support.’ Soup Kitchen at the American International Church, 79a Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4TD T: 020 7580 2791    www.amchurch.co.uk/soup-kitchen/

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/virtual tour – 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: 

The Parish Church of All Saints Margaret Street, London W1 W 8JG
Vicar: The Revd Prebendary Alan Moses
T: 07973 878040 E: alanmoses111@gmail.com (Day off: Saturday)

Assistant Priest: The Revd Dr Michael Bowie
T: 07581 180963 E: mnrbowie@gmail.com (Day off: Wednesday)

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.)

For amendments to the prayer list please contact:
Dee Prior, Parish Administrator (020 7636 1788).  E: astsmgtst@aol.com

Or make use of the prayer request facility on the website at: www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk/prayer. 

Safeguarding Officers: Chris Self (Vulnerable Adults) and: Janet Drake (Children)

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