All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friends,

First, of all, may I wish all our readers a happy and peaceful New Year.

The streets around All Saints are beginning to return to normal as people come back to work after the Christmas holiday. Office buildings which have been quiet for a week or more are returning to their normal activity. In contrast, Oxford Street barely paused for breath, with shop doors open for the early bargain hunters on the day after Christmas.

We’ve had a number of phone calls from people asking about our opening hours – some from people who had confused us with the clothes shop of the same name in Market Place! In fact, a good many people have found their way into the church and some have left messages of thanks for it being open, not least on a wet and windy New Year’s Day.  Some have been surprised that we have maintained our daily round of worship, perhaps expecting us to have collapsed from exhaustion after what people refer to as “your busy time.” 

Many of our own people who have been away over Christmas, visiting their families, are also returning to the fold in time for our celebration of the Epiphany. This begins with Evensong on Sunday and continues with High Mass on Monday evening. On the following Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of Christ, another of the “three epiphanies”, and in the evening we have our candle-lit Epiphany Carol Service. The last of these is one of those celebrations which people can invite their friends to; perhaps as an introduction to our worship.   

Perhaps because it falls in the middle of what used to be called the January sales, Epiphany has not yet been appropriated by consumerism in a reversal of that process by which the Church colonised pagan festivals and gave them new meaning.  Perhaps it will continue to be spared as hot cross buns and Easter eggs begin to fill the shelves. If it is, perhaps it will be one of those occasions in the year, along with Candlemas, Ash Wednesday, Holy Week, Ascension Day, Pentecost and All Saints, when Christians are left to follow our own Calendar; one which reminds us that we are to live according to God’s time and not the world’s.

So, as well as a Happy New Year, I wish you a Blessed Epiphany.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Alan Moses

PRAYER DIARY:
Please pray for those who have asked for our prayers: Harry Allan, Jean Brackston, Margaret Campbell, Rachel Clayton, Rosie Davis, Ursula Edwards, Arthur Ferns, Charles Forker, Joan Foster, Isabella Fotheringham, Denise Inge, Philip Harland, Mason Jacobsen, Jill, Craig Laughton, Katherine Lee, Joshua Levy, Christine Loffty, Kerry Manuel, Lewis Overlaker, Rachel Perez-Catalan, Marimar Perez-Fabo, Celia Shore, Stephen Short, Andrew Tillyard.  

For the recently departed: Nelson Mandela, Sandra O’Brien, Thomas Vaughan, Sister Mary Magdalene SLG, Maria Villaverde, Molly Money, Nick Luff (former Assistant Organist at All Saints’Church).  

At the anniversary of their death (during the coming week): Ernest Waggett, Timothy Shaw, Emily Finnis, Tom Ryder (Priest, sometime Curate All Saints’ Church), Mary Park, Constance Tweed, Robert Routledge, Winifred Nash, Lilian Yorke, Fay Ireland, Jill Horley, Anthony Bullock, Kay Leahy, Sylvia Scott, Vera Freeth, Hermia Mills, Ann Ind, Jack Finnie, Katherine Humphries, Michael Fleming (Organist of All Saints 1958-68), Anthea Candlin, Richard Candlin, Eric Bailey (Priest, formerly Curate All Saints’ Church), Sophia Wickenden, Beryl Peryer.

WORSHIP AT ALL SAINTS THIS SUNDAY:

THE SECOND SUNDAY OF CHRISTMAS – 5 JANUARY 2014
Music and Preachers:
HIGH MASS 11am:
Missa ‘O magnum mysterium’ – Victoria
Here is the little door – Howells
Preacher: The Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses

CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION 6pm
Service in E – Murrill
The Three Kings – arr Cornelius, arr Atkins
Preacher: Fr Julian Browning

NOTICES & NEWS

PARISH OFFICE REOPENS AFTER THE HOLIDAY
Please note that the All Saints’ Parish Office will reopen on Monday 6 January 2014.

EPIPHANY AT ALL SAINTS – All welcome – please bring some friends!

Monday 6 January 2014
THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD – Procession and High Mass, 6.30pm
Missa ‘Bel’ amfitrit altera’– Lassus and Magi videntes stellam – Clemens
non Papa
Preacher: Canon Michael Hempel, St Paul’s Cathedral

Sunday 12 January 2014
THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST – High Mass, 11am
Missa Brevis – Berkeley and Lo, star-led chiefs – Crotch
Preacher: The Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses

Sunday 12 January 2014 – Epiphany Carol Service, 6pm
A service of Readings and Music for the Epiphany by candle-light with the Choir of All Saints’ 

FUTURE EVENT FOR YOUR DIARY
Sunday 26 January 2014 – 7.15pm (after Evensong & Benediction) – ORGAN RECITAL – Charles Andrews, Associate Director of Music All Saints. Programme includes works by J. S. Bach and Karg-Elert. Post recital collection to support the Choir and Music at All Saints’. Suggested donation: £3.

If you would like to encourage others to receive this weekly email, please forward this email on to them, or people you would like to invite to services. If you know of others who would like to receive this correspondence, or for whom you would like prayers offered at All Saints’, please ask them to email the Parish Administrator Mrs Dee Prior at: astsmgtst@aol.com.

If you would like any pastoral assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses: alanmoses111@gmail.com.