Weekly Email – 2nd Before Advent
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Dear friends,
The incorporation of new members into the Body of Christ through baptism and confirmation is one of the greatest joys of our parish life. Bishop Jonathan will be with us next Eastertide on Sunday 18th May 2025 to administer the sacraments of initiation. Please put this date in your diary and be sure to come to encourage those being baptized into the Lord.
I write this week asking anyone who would like to be baptized and/or confirmed to be in touch with the clergy as we begin to organise confirmation classes for the New Year. We would also like to hear from anyone who may already have been baptized and confirmed, but who wishes to deepen their understanding of the faith, renew their baptismal promises and make a public declaration of faith.
Confirmation classes will begin in January. Our usual pattern is for them to take place fortnightly between January and the confirmation in May, but the exact dates of classes will depend of when the candidates can make them. It is good to begin the process of working out what sequence of teaching is best for the group as early as possible.
The classes cover a wide range of topics, but aim to give those who attend them a good grounding in the basics of the Christian faith, the capacity to form a rule of life, an introduction to prayer and spirituality, and an understanding of the Catholic tradition within the Church of England.
It may be that you have just started attending worship at All Saints’ and that being part of a community of faith is a new experience for you. Many people who start worshipping with us have often not been baptized as a baby and feel the time has come for them to take the next step in their journey of faith by being baptized and confirmed. If that is the case, we would love to hear from you and rejoice that God is prompting you to deepen your relationship with him in this way.
It is also sometimes the case that people have been baptized as a child, but were never confirmed. In this case, too, being confirmed is a powerful way of making your own that baptismal faith, which may have been recently rekindled by God in your life, by publicly declaring your allegiance to Christ and receiving a renewed gift of the Holy Spirit at the hands of the bishop.
However, it may also be that you received both the sacraments of baptism nd confirmation as a child but have now recently come back to faith or feel you want a new and more thorough experience of catechesis as an adult. In this case, it is also possible for you to join our confirmation class. Even though you cannot be baptized and confirmed a second time, it will be possible for you to renew your baptismal promises and publicly proclaim your faith in Christ at the confirmation service, as you give thanks for the sacramental grace you have already received and pray that God will stir up that gift afresh in your life.
Please be in touch with the clergy via the parish office (office@asms.uk) to let us know if you would like to discuss baptism and confirmation more and please keep in your prayers all those whom God is calling into a closer relationship with himself through sacramental incorporation into the church.
Fr Peter
Parish walking Group
Tomorrow, Saturday 16th November, is our next parish walk. It will be around 7 miles. Bring a packed lunch – but there will be chance for a pub stop. We will meet at 09.15 at the Windrush memorial in Waterloo station, and board the 09.35 train to Guildford. We will be back in London by 16.30. All are welcome – please let Fr Alan know if you plan to attend.
Parishioners gathered on Wednesday for the next session in our in person formation programme. Fr Jeremy Haselock spoke about the Prayer Book Revision crisis of 1928, and what we can learn about how the Anglican tradition revised and reforms its liturgical life.
Advent Silent Retreat
A silent pre-Christmas retreat will take place at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham from Friday 6th – Sunday 8th December 2024. The weekend involves arriving on Friday afternoon, and then keeping silence from Friday evening until Sunday morning. The cost of this pilgrimage is £250. This covers the cost of accommodation, meals and travel from Kings Lynn. Pilgrims simply have to pay for their train ticket to Kings Lynn.
To reserve a place, sign up via Eventbrite here.
Those who gathered online for our latest Zoom theology Seminar had a fascinating evening thinking about the theology of Soren Kierkegaard. It was led by Fr Jeff Hanson, from America, and was organised jointly with our sister parish in New York, St Mary the Virgin, Times Square.
Requiem Masses
November is the month of Holy Souls. There will be Low Masses of Requiem on November 5th, 16th and 27th. If you would like a departed loved one named at one of those Masses, please be in touch with the Parish Office.
Sponsorship of sacristy supplies
We were so touched by the generosity which parishioners displayed in our efforts last year to cover the cost of sacristy supplies through sponsorship. A new order of altar hosts which should cover us for the next six months or so has just been received, and which has cost £133.25.
If anyone would like to sponsor part or all of that cost, please be in touch with the parish office (office@asms.uk). We would be hugely grateful!
We are grateful to all those who volunteered to staff the homeless shelter at the American Church on Tottenham Court Road last week, which gives 15 homeless guests a hot meal and a bed for the night. If you would like to help with staffing the shelter in February (the night of 5th/6th Feb), please be in touch with the parish office (office @asms.uk).
Volunteers for Carol Services
We need volunteers to help with welcome and staffing of the many carol services which take place in December each year at All Saints’. These are services in which an external body uses our church for a carol service, at which refreshments often need serving. This is an important ministry which welcomes hundreds of people into our church building each year and which also raises crucial revenue.
Please be in touch with Kate via the parish office (office@asms.uk) if you can offer time to help with this important work. The dates we need help on this year are: 4th; 5th; 6th; 10th; 11th; 12th; 13th; 17th; & 19th December.
Volunteering at the C4WS shelter at the American Church on Tottenham Court Road involves welcoming homeless guests and sharing a meal with them. Here, parishioners from All Saints’ get hot tea and coffee ready to welcome the guests.
Flowers and Music sponsorship
The flowers have been given this week by Roger Clark in memory of his mother, Mollie Clark, whose 60th anniversary falls this month. May she rest in peace.
We are very grateful indeed to him for also sponsoring the music at the High Mass on Sunday in her memory. Sponsorship makes a huge difference to our music budget each year and we are very grateful indeed for Roger’s generosity.
If you would like to have flowers put in church to mark a special occasion or if you would like to make a contribution to the flowers for big festivals, please contact Shawn directly or via the office.
Parishioners and visitors enjoy a light meal together before Fr Haselock’s talk of Prayer Book Reform on Tuesday night.
Christmas Services 2024
Sunday 22nd December 2024
8.30 am Low Mass for Advent 4
11.00 am High Mass for Advent 4
5.15 pm Low Mass for Advent 4
6.00 pm Christmas Carol Service: Service of 9 Lessons and Carols
Tuesday 24th December 2024
6.30 pm First High Mass of Christmas
11.00 pm Midnight Mass
Wednesday 25th December 2024
8.30 am Low Mass
11.00 am High Mass
Sunday 29th December 2024
11.00 am High Mass
N.B. No evening Mass or Evensong on 29th December
Attendance last Sunday
For your prayers
The Friends of All Saints’ Margaret Street:
17th – Sue Feakin, Adrian Felaar, Elizabeth Ferguson, Daniel Fielden, Janice Fielden, Nigel Fisher, Mark Fleming
18th – Stuart Fletcher, Christopher Forman, Antony Fox, Dr Ralph Donald Fram, Dr Jason Frost, Derrick French, Charlotte Gauthier, Dr Rebecca Gibbs, Margaret Goddard, Paul Golding, John Goldsmith
19th – Genevieve Gomi, Jack de Gruiter, Canon Michael Gudgeon, Sheelagh Gudgeon, Ginger and Del Hall, Monica Joan Hall
20th – Canon Richard Hanford, Paul Hannah, Jillian Hargreaves, Christopher Harlow-Jennings, Patrick Hartley, The Rev’d Canon Jeremy Haselock
21st – Eoghan Healy, Rebecca Hirst, Fr. David Hobden, James and Gwendoline Holdcroft, The Rev’d Canon Graham Holcombe, Rosy Holt, Bishop David Hope
22nd – Richard Hoskinson, Fr David Hutt, Alfred Imhoff, David James, Andrew Jervis, Stephen Jury, Malcolm Kemp
23rd – Alan Kimbrough, Brenda Koupis, Stanislav Kudryashov, Christopher Laws, Margaret Leggett
The sick:
Bishop Christopher Chessun, David Craig, Tony Hawkins, Fr Harry Hodgetts, Arthur Johnson, Katherine Lee, Elizabeth Lyon, James Rodger, Fr James Rosenthal, Jan Smith, Fr Peter Strange, Christine Vaughn-Lillie.
The faithful departed:
Graham Norman, David Weller, Elizabeth Rankin, Pauline Ellis, Michael Parslew, Lee Nyuk Chin.
Those whose anniversaries of death fall at this time:
17th – Elizabeth Church, Jonathan Walker, Rodney Beasley, Mollie Clark
18th – Nadine Olivey, Norman Caplin
19th – Clifford Doyle Pr, Joan Roberts, Donald Page
20th – Florence Searle, Helen Clayton, Douglas Cudmore, Gwendoline Minnett
21st – Emma Stephens, Jack Harrington, Kingsley Stansfield, David Voy
22nd – George Ebbs, Joyce Harvey, Winifred Brough, Mary Buchanan, Timothy Lawford
23rd – Josephine Fletcher, Robert Walker, Ailsa Critchley, Ann Swanton, Susan Beauchamp, Craig Williams
24th – Henry West, Gladys Howard, Alyo Purdon
Service times this week
Saturday 16th November – of Requiem
12 noon Requiem
6.30 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday
Sunday 17th November – Second Sunday before Advent
8.30 am Low Mass
11 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Evensong and Benediction
Monday 18th November – Feria
12 noon Mass
6.30 pm Mass
Tuesday 19th November – Feria
12 noon Mass
6.30 pm Mass
Wednesday 20th November – Feria
12 noon Mass
5.30 pm Holy Hour
6.30 pm Low Mass
Thursday 21th November – Presentation of the B.V.M.
12 noon Mass
6.30 pm Mass
Friday 22nd November – St Cecilia
12 noon Mass
6.30 pm Mass
Saturday 23rd November – Our Lady on Saturday
12 noon Mass
6.30 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday
Sunday 24th November – Christ the King
8.30 am Low Mass
11.00 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Evensong and Benediction