Weekly Email – Lent 1
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Dear friends,
As Lent begins, a number of exciting opportunities for formation, learning and growing in faith are on offer in our parish. These include a course exploring Dante’s Inferno, a theatre trip, the Stations of the Cross, and our online Zoom theology seminar. Details of all these programmes and events are listed below in this email.
Lent also usually coincides with our annual programme of formation for those preparing for baptism and confirmation. I am pleased that a good number of people have been in touch asking to be prepared for the sacraments of initiation.
If you have been wondering about being baptized, confirmed, being received into the Church of England, or publicly re-affirming your faith, there is still time to be in touch with the clergy to signal your interest – but please do so quickly!
It looks at the minute like confirmation classes will be held on Saturday afternoons over the coming months. We have put together a rich and interesting curriculum of formation aimed at giving those who participate a through grounding in the basics of the Christian faith.
Sessions will include: exploration of sacramental theology and pondering what baptism and confirmation are; teaching about the Early Church, and especially the ways in which it defined who it understood Jesus to be in its first centuries; how we should approach the scriptures, the ways in which we understand that God speaks to us through them, and approaches to reading and understanding his Word; time focussed on the Oxford Movement, and the particular theological and liturgical tradition our parish stands in; and opportunities to explore our understanding of God through the arts, and particularly through a visit to the National Gallery.
Our confirmation will take place this year on the feast of Pentecost, Sunday 19th May. I urge you to put this date in your diaries and to keep our candidates in your prayers as they begin their pilgrim journey to full sacramental incorporation into Christ.
Whatever stage we find ourselves at in our Christian journey, let us all renew our commitment this Lent to deepening our faith, and exploring afresh the Mystery of our Salvation in Christ so that we might understand and love better the God who saves us and calls us to life in him.
Fr Peter
Coffee in our courtyard after the High Mass: an opportunity to catch up with each other, welcome visitors and newcomers, and enjoy a time of fellowship together.
Lent study course: Dante’s Inferno
Fr Alan Rimmer will be leading a three part study course through Lent focussed on Dante’s Inferno, which will be take place both in person and online. We’ll use Mark Musa’s translation (available in Penguin classics) but it can be interesting to compare translations so do bring any others you might have already along.
The first session will take place on Wednesday February 21st, at 7pm on Zoom, and we’ll be looking at the first ten cantos. The Zoom link is here (Meeting ID: 856 9978 3019 Passcode: Dante). The second session will be in person at All Saints’, on Tuesday March 5th at 7pm. And the final session will be on Zoom on Wednesday, March 20th, at 7pm (same Zoom link).
Fr Peter was pleased to be present for the bicentenary celebrations of St George’s Anglican Church in Paris last weekend. He is chair of the patronage board and charity which owns their church building. We were glad to welcome St George’s to All Saints’ for their London Friends Mass last summer and look forward to hosting them again this July.
Stations of the Cross
There will be a celebration of the Stations of the Cross at 7 pm each Friday in Lent beginning today, Friday 16th February. This lasts around half an hour and follows on directly after the 6.30 pm Mass.
The Stations of the Cross are an exercise in following Christ in the last few hours of his earthly life through his passion and death. As we move around the church stopping at 14 stations, our hearts and minds move with us as we contemplate the love our saviour showed for us, revealed in the incidents that characterised his journey to the Calvary and the tomb.
A wonderful time was had by all those who gathered at Le Beaujolais restaurant in Soho for our Shrove Tuesday Crepes Suzette dinner – a convivial way of bidding farewell to Ordinary Time and preparing for Lent!
Lent Appeal 2024
We will be following our usual custom of organising a Lent Appeal to provide a focus for parishioners’ charitable giving during Lent. All funds raised this year will contribute towards the costs of the Mental Health Worker who works at the American Church on the Tottenham Court Road.
Their Soup Kitchen is a resource for the homeless, elderly, lonely and vulnerable in London. They provide free meals, clothing, toiletries and a sense of belonging to nearly 150 people each day and an on-site mental health drop-in centre to help address their guests’ mental health needs. You can give to our Lent appeal here.
In the sermon at last Sunday’s High Mass, Fr Alan Rimmer pointed us to the sparse, simple, spare prose of the Transfiguration narrative. It is an attempt to describe in words the indescribable, and to express imperfectly in a few short sentences human experience of the divine. In St Peter’s response we see our own, an “earnestness sitting alongside misunderstanding”…and yet it is in the mundane, the human, the created, and the ordinary that God makes himself known to us. You can watch Fr Alan’s homily again here.
Lent Theatre Trip: Gerard Manley Hopkins
There will be a parish trip to the theatre for Lent on Wednesday 6th March to see a fascinating show presenting the poetry and life story of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Tickets are £26 each and the play begins at 7.30 pm.
The play will take place at Wilton’s Music Hall in Whitechapel. The Dead Poets Live project, which has produced the play, combines live recitation of poetry, drama, and story-telling to bring the work, experience, and reception of leading poets to life for audiences.
To book a place, please email the parish office (office@asms.uk).
Our young adults group meets every few months for events, trips and social activities. Please be in touch with Fr Alan if you would like to be added to our young adults mailing list and kept abreast of future events.
Zoom Theology
Our next Zoom Theology seminar will be entitled, “Holy Murder” and will take place on Tuesday 19th March.
Fr Alan will be leading us in comparing detective novels with a religious context, teasing out the theological and ethical themes that emerge from them. We’ll focus particularly on P.D. James’ classic Death in Holy Orders, and The Rev’d Richard Coles’ Murder before Evensong. More information about our online Zoom Theology Seminars (including Zoom links) can be found here.
Coffee in our courtyard after the High Mass: an opportunity to catch up with each other, welcome visitors and newcomers, and enjoy a time of fellowship together.
Sacrament of Confession
You can make your confession before or after any celebration of the Mass, or by appointment, with any of our parish clergy during Lent.
In addition, Fr Graeme Rowlands will be available to hear confessions and/or offer spiritual counsel at the following times: Tues 21st Feb – 5.30 pm; Wed 28th Feb – 5.30 pm; Wed 6th March – 5.30 pm; Mon 11th March – 5.30 pm; Mon 18th March – 11.00 am.
In our sermon for Ash Wednesday, Fr Peter presented Lent to us as a time to break free from the fantasy worlds we create for ourselves through sin and delusion, and to return to reality by returning to God himself. Our Lenten disciplines are a way of keeping ourselves in that place of reality for they root us in God who is perfect love and truth itself. You can watch the homily again here.
Online Zoom Coffee Hour
Two online Zoom Coffee Hours are planned for the coming months: Sunday 17th March 2024 at 12.45; and Sunday 5th May.
These coffee hours offer an opportunity for those who worship with us online, and those who are housebound to meet online for a time of chat, conversation and fellowship. At the end of the High Mass, just make yourself a cup of coffee and join us online. Do put these dates in your diary – Zoom links will follow in the coming weeks.
At last Sunday’s High Mass, the music included: Missa Sancti Gabrieli by Michael Haydn; and In splendenti nube by Peter Phillips. The preacher was Fr Alan Rimmer. You can watch the liturgy again here.
Reading rota
We need new volunteers to expand the number of people available to read from the scriptures at the High Mass and at Evensong on Sundays. Please be in touch with Fr Alan, who is reviewing and renewing our reading rota at the moment, if you would like to volunteer to read.
Coffee in our courtyard after the High Mass: an opportunity to catch up with each other, welcome visitors and newcomers, and enjoy a time of fellowship together.
Help needed with sacristy ironing
We need new volunteers who can help with a number of sacristy tasks. In particular, we need new people who are able to help with the weekly task of washing and ironing the linens which are used at the Mass each day – especially purificators.
Purificators are small squares of linen about the size of a handkerchief which need carefully ironing into three. A fresh one is used at every Mass to clean and purify the chalice (i.e. we get through 16 a week).
If you would like to volunteer to help with this important work, please speak to Fr Peter.
National Pilgrimage to Walsingham
- Our parish coach for the National Pilgrimage to Walsingham leaves at 7.30 am on Monday 27th May. £20 a place. Email the parish office if you wish to book a place (office@asms.uk).
Attendance last Sunday
Our Shrove Tuesday Crepes Suzette dinner at Le Beaujolais restaurant in Soho.
Prayer List
The Friends of All Saints’ Margaret Street:
February 18th – Stuart Fletcher, Christopher Forman, Anthony Fox, Dr Ralph Donald Fram, Dr Jason Frost, Charlotte Gauthier, Dr Rebecca Gibbs, Pamela Goddard, Paul Golding, John Goldsmith
19th – Genevieve Gomi, The Ven Thomas M. Greene, Jack de Gruiter, Canon Michael Gudgeon, Sheelagh Gudgeon, Ginger and Del Hall, Monica Joan Hall
20th – Roger Hancock, Canon Richard Hanford, Paul Hannah, Jillian Hargreaves, Christopher Harrison, Patrick Hartley, The Rev’d Canon Jeremy Haselock
21st – Eoghan Healy, Rebecca Hirst, Fr. David Hobden, James and Gwendoline Holdcroft, Edwin Holmes, The Rev’d Canon Graham Holcombe, Bishop David Hope
22nd – Richard Hoskinson, David Hutt, Alfred Imhoff, David James, Andrew Jervis, Arthur Johnson, Stephen Jury, Malcolm Kemp
23rd – Alan Kimbrough, Brenda Koupis, The Very Rev’d Harry Krauss, Deirdre Laing, Graham Last, Christopher Laws
24th – Cornelius Logue, Frau Dr Christiane Loidl-Rainey, Nigel Lynn, Henry Macey, Bishop Michael Marshall, Robert Mason, Graham Mather
The sick:
Javier Barbetta, Martin Berka, David Craig, Jason Dunlop, Clara Exton, Gill Hargreaves, Fr. Harry Hodgetts, Michael Lamprell, Lesley Lee, Elizabeth Lyon, Lionel and Lynn Persey, James Roger, Bruce Ross-Smith
The faithful departed:
Anne Entwistle, Marian Duggan, Frances Gayler, Doreen Harding, Elizabeth Paver, Timothy Slater
Those whose anniversaries of death fall at this time:
February 18th – Lill MacKay, Angela Thompson, Joan Bowie
19th – Mavis Symes
21st – Guida Crowley, Joan Williams
22nd – John Sanders Vickery
23rd – William Butterfield, Thomas Skeffington-Lodge
24th – James Keen
25th – Eleanor Alaway, Derek Beavan, Diana Stonebanks, Yoskyl Brackley
Our Shrove Tuesday Crepes Suzette dinner at Le Beaujolais restaurant in Soho.
Service times this week
Saturday 17th February – Feria
12.00 pm Mass
6.30 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday
Sunday 18th February – Lent I
11.00 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Evensong and Benediction
Monday 19th February – Feria
12.00 pm Mass
6.30 pm Mass
Tuesday 20th February – Feria
12.00 pm Mass
6.30 pm Mass
Wednesday 21st February – Feria
12.00 pm Mass
6.30 pm Mass
Thursday 22nd February – The Chair of St Peter
12.00 pm Mass
6.30 pm Mass
Friday 23rd February – Feria
12.00 pm Mass
6.30 pm Mass
7.00 pm Stations of the Cross
Saturday 24th February – Feria
11.30 Rosary
12 noon Mass
6.30 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday
Sunday 25th February – Lent II
11.00 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Evensong and Benediction