Weekly Email – All Saints' Day
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Dear friends,
All Saints’ Day is upon us this weekend and it is with joy and gratitude that we give thanks for the communion we share with all God’s saints in every generation.
The celebration of All Saints’ Day has a special significance this year because it marks the launch of a year-long effort to raise funds for our parish’s Music and Choir Trust Fund.
Please note the outline of events this weekend which is slightly different from our usual celebrations.
Our first Mass of All Saints’ Day will take place at 5.15 pm tomorrow. Please note this is earlier than our usual Saturday night Vigil Mass and this weekend there will be no 6.00 pm confessions slot. All this is because a major fundraising concert will take place on Saturday evening at 7.00 pm to launch our Music campaign.
You can buy tickets for the concert here. Music will include: Bairstow’s Blessed City, Heavenly Salem; Macdowell’s Annunciation; Macmillan’s A special Appeal; Finzi’s Lo the full and final sacrifice; Holst’s Nunc Dimittis; and Parry’s Songs of Farewell. Do please make a special effort to be present if you can be.
Sunday marks our keeping of All Saints’ Day with a High Mass at 11.00 am. The preacher will be the Archdeacon of London, the Ven Luke Miller. The setting of the Mass with be Mozart’s Missa Brevis in B♭ K275 and the Offertory Anthem will be Byrd’s Justorum animae. It will also be a wonderful opportunity to sing much-loved hymns of the feast such as For all the Saints and In our Day of Thanksgiving.
In the evening, Solemn Evensong and Benediction will include, as is our usual custom, a Te Deum sung in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. The Music will include: Howells, Gloucester Service; Bullock, Give us the wings of faith; Stanford, Te Deum in B♭; Bortniansky, arr Caplin, O Salutaris; and Harwood, arr Caplin, Tantum Ergo.
The calendar this year moves All Souls’ Day to Monday 3rd November, which we will keep with a High Mass of Requiem at 6.00 pm. The Mass will be sung to the Requiem by Victoria, and the preacher will be Bishop Lindsay Urwin.
Do also note that next Sunday, 9th November, is Remembrance Sunday and will be kept with a Solemn High Mass of Requiem at 11.00 am, this time sung to the setting by Fauré. We hope this innovation – the celebration of a Requiem rather than a Mass of a Sunday in Ordinary Time – represents an enrichment of our keeping of Remembrance Sunday.
I look forward to celebrating with you our heavenly citizenship, and the communion we share with the heavenly host. May all God’s angels and saints watch over us and guard us a pray for us. I wish you all a very blessed feast day!
Fr Peter
Music Fundraising Events 2025-2026
Christmas Carol Concert – Friday 19th Dec
The next event in our fundraising programme will be a Christmas Carol Organ Concert offered by our Associate Director of Music, Jeremiah Stephenson, on Friday 19th December 2025 at 7.00 pm.
It will be a wonderful evening of organ music for the festive season. The programme will include: Dupré, Variations sur un vieux Noël; plus improvisation on a series of well known and loved Christmas carols.
We are so grateful to Jeremiah for offering this wonderful concert in aid of our campaign.
Zoom Theology Seminar – Tuesday 14th April
On Tuesday 14th April 2026 at 7.00 pm there will be the opportunity to think about the contribution All Saints’ has made to English music in an online seminar which will form part of our Zoom Theology series for next year. Dr Serenhedd James will lead us in a discussion examining the musical patrimony of All Saints’ and its influence on Anglo-Catholic liturgical and choral traditions.
American Launch – Friday 20th March 2026
On Friday 20th March 2026 there will be an American Launch event in New York City. A drinks party reception for the American Friends of All Saints’ will take place at the House of the Redeemer, E 95th Street, NYC. There will be a Mass at 6.00 pm followed by a drinks party at 6.30 pm. All American Friends and supporters are invited to join us.
Bach concert – Friday 29th May 2026
On Friday 29th May 2026 at 7.00 pm there will be a concert given by Dr Stephen Farr, our Director of Music on the harpsichord, and Margaret Faultless on the baroque violin. It will be an evening of music by J.S. Bach including the Goldberg Variations, entitled, in Bach’s own words, “Music composed for connoisseurs for the refreshment of their spirits.”
Rachmaninoff Sunday – 7th June 2026
In the summer of 2026, there will be a special Sunday to celebrate All Saints’ links with Sergei Rachmaninoff. On Sunday 7th June 2026, all music at the High Mass and Evensong will be the “All Saints’, Margaret Street” settings inspired by Rachmaninov created by Walter Vale and Eric Arnold. There will be two short lectures after the 11.00 am High Mass given by Professor Iain Quinn and Professor Geoffrey Norris reflecting on Rachmaninoff’s connections with All Saints’ and his Liturgy of St John the Divine.
In addition, Bishop Rowan Williams will be the preacher at the 11.00 am High Mass on that day and will reflect on connections between English music and theology, and Russia.
The Lloyd Webber Connection
On Sunday 4th October 2026, we will celebrate All Saints’ connection to the Lloyd Webber family and especially to William Lloyd Webber, who was our Director of Music in the 1940s. All settings at the High Mass and at Evensong and Benediction will be by William Lloyd Webber, and we will be joined in the evening by his son, Andrew Lloyd Webber, who will speak at a drinks reception after Evensong on his father’s musical legacy.
Gala Fundraising Dinner
On Thursday 29th October 2026 there will be a Gala Fundraising Dinner at the Savile Club, on Brook Street. Tickets for the event will be £100 per head and we are hoping the Revd Richard Coles will be joining us as the after dinner speaker (though this is yet to be confirmed because of the complexities of his diary).
All Saintstide 2026
Our year of fundraising will finish next November with a series of liturgical celebrations to bring this first stage of our campaign to a close. Before she was announced as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Sarah Mullally agreed to preach at Evensong on Saturday 31st October 2026. We are waiting to hear whether Bishop Sarah can still make this commitment. The celebrant and preacher at the High Mass for All Saints’ Day, Sunday 1st November, will be the Bishop of Fulham.
Winter homeless shelter
We are looking for volunteers for our parish winter homeless shelter project.
The pattern involves taking the lead in feeding and offering hospitality to some of the homeless of this city at the night shelter hosted at the American Church on the Tottenham Court Road.
We have undertaken to run the shelter on the following nights: Wednesday 26th November 2025; Wednesday 7th January 2026; Wednesday 4th February 2026; and Wednesday 18th March 2026.
If you would like to volunteer, please be in touch with Fr Alan (assistant.priest@asms.uk) and put these dates in your diary.
You can read more about our Zoom Theology Programme for the next year here.
Zoom Theology: The Book of Revelation
Our next Zoom theology seminar takes place on 7pm, Tuesday 18th November, 2025, and is focussed on the theology of the Book of the Apocalypse.
Professor Ian Boxall will be leading this session. He is Senior Fellow in New Testament and Professor of Biblical Studies at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St Louis, Missouri. He has taught previously at the Catholic University of America, and the University of Oxford, from which he received his Doctorate in the Book of Revelation.
He has since published further on the topic, and is considered one of the world’s leading authorities on this complex and enigmatic book of Scripture. Professor Boxall will introduce us to the history and interpretation of Revelation and its place in the canon.
It would be especially useful to have re-read the text itself in preparation for the evening. A number of Professor Boxall’s books are available affordably.
You can see more details about our full Zoom Theology Programme along with the Zoom link here.
Fr Peter’s sermon at the High Mass last Sunday launched our Music campaign. You can hear his appeal to all parishioners and friends again here.
Flowers
The flowers in front of Our Lady for All Saints’ are given by Charlotte Black in memory of her Father Donald Black.
The flowers for All Souls’ are given by Martin Hime, in memory of his father Alan, whose anniversary of death falls on All Souls’ Day.
If you would like to make a donation for flowers or the courtyard garden, please contact Shawn directly or via the office.
Attendance last Sunday
For your prayers
Please pray for our continued witness to Jesus Christ through the beauty of holiness, and for those contributing to our Music Fundraising Campaign.
Recently departed
Keelan Shorten
Anniversaries of death
2nd – Harold Wilson, Pr
3rd – Gilbert Pickering
4th – Jack Fallon, Rosemary Crawley
5th – Helen St Aubyn, Curtis Berk, Daphne Gordon, Terence Duggan, Glyn Thomas, Rosemary Crome
6th – Philip Gould;
7th – Constance Peters
8th – Dudley Sholté, Arnold Fryer, Barbara Reynolds
and all departed worshippers, clergy & benefactors of All Saints.
Special intentions
Those who live, work and study in our Parish and for our corporate commitment to serve those less fortunate than ourselves; the Friends of All Saints’, Margaret Street; the Society of All Saints Sisters of the Poor; those who join in our worship online; and for our visitors.
The sick
Jean Castledine, David Craig, Fr Harry Hodgetts, Vivienne Nally, Daniel Oliver, Fr Peter Roberts, James Rodger, Carol Simmons, Ingrid Slaughter, Juliet Windham, Oskar Rodriguez-Lopez.
Services this week
Saturday 1 November – Eve of All Saints
12pm Low Mass
5.15 pm Vigil Low Mass of All Saints
7 pm Choir Concert – Urbs Beata
Sunday 2 November – ALL SAINTS’ DAY
8.30 am Low Mass
11 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Solemn Evensong and Benediction with Te Deum
Monday 3 November – ALL SOULS DAY
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm High Mass of Requiem
Tuesday 4 November – Feria
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Wednesday 5 November – Feria
12 noon Low Mass
5.30 Holy Hour
6.30 pm Low Mass
Thursday 6 November – Feria
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Friday 7 November – Feria
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Saturday 8 November – Our Lady on Saturday
12pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Confessions
6.30 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday
Sunday 2 November – REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY
8.30 am Low Mass
10.55 am High Mass of Requiem with Act of Remembrance
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Solemn Evensong and Benediction