All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear friends,

We celebrate this Sunday the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We recall in this feast that at the end of her earthly life, Mary, Jesus’ mother, was taken up into heaven to be with her son.

We will celebrate this great feast with a High Mass on Sunday morning at 11.00 am. This will be a further step in the return of liturgical traditions which have been suspended because of COVID. From this weekend onwards, the 11.00 am Mass on a Sunday will be a High Mass once again.

On Sunday evening, we will celebrate the feast with Evensong, a procession of Our Lady down Oxford Street, and Benediction at 6.00 pm. I urge you to make time to come to this evening celebration, and to stay for the parish party which will take place in the courtyard after the liturgy. The procession is a wonderful way to proclaim our faith in Jesus Christ and show our love for his mother.

Early traditions of the church speak about the Apostles gathering at Mary’s grave only to find it empty and covered with flowers – her body having been taken into heaven. The reason Christians have always believed in Mary’s Assumption is quite simple.  Christians believe Mary to be unique and special. Only she was chosen to carry and give birth to Jesus, the Son of God. Because she was kept from all stain of sin, and because her vocation was so extraordinary, God did not let her experience death, but rather took her to heaven before her body could know earthly decay.

But this isn’t just an event which is external to us. Rather, it points to something very important at the heart of Christian life, for we all share in this mystery through our own baptism. Through a washing with physical water, we were spiritually reborn into Christ and placed at the beginning of a journey of faith that leads to God. Baptism is the point at which we started to experience eternal life. From that moment of baptism onwards, we live more closely in the love of God, and experience within us the reality of God’s Kingdom.

Our Christian discipleship points to the thing Mary experienced at the end of her earthly life – the life of heaven. She is the first to experience the saving power of her son’s death and resurrection.

Mary is in a place where her earthly life is fulfilled and completed, and that is something all Christians hope for. Through putting our trust in Jesus Christ and by living according to the Gospel, we are given nothing less than the promise of eternal life. That is why this weekend’s feast is such a cause for joy and celebration.

Fr Peter

5.15 pm Mass cancelled this Sunday only

Please note that the 5.15 pm Mass this Sunday 15th August is cancelled because of the preparations for our Assumption Evensong and Procession. This is for one week only, and the 5.15 pm Low Mass will continue as normal from next Sunday onwards.

New set of High Mass vestments

I am very pleased to announce that a new set of beautiful High Mass vestments have been entrusted to the sacristy of All Saints’. They come from Ascot Priory and have been given to us on permanent loan.

The sisters of the Society of the Most Holy Trinity were a community of nuns who lived for many years at Ascot, but dwindled in number and eventually became extinct with the death of their last sister some years ago.

The trustees of the convent are now finding new uses for their buildings in accordance with the charitable purposes of the trust set up to look after the nuns’ remaining assets. They are keen that certain objects belonging to the sisters but which can no longer be used in the convent should find new, appropriate homes where they will be cared for and valued. These vestments have very kindly been given into our custodianship for the time being.

They are a set of white English style gothic vestments, and are of extraordinary beauty and craftsmanship. The quality of the embroidery is outstanding, and the whole set is in very good condition indeed. I am very pleased All Saints has been chosen as the custodian of these remarkable vestments which form such an important part of Anglo-Catholic patrimony and history.

They will be used for the first time on Sunday morning for the High Mass of the Assumption, and I ask you to say a prayer every time we see them in our sanctuary for all who served God as the sisters of the Society of the Most Holy Trinity.

Fr Peter

Walsingham Devotion & Monthly Requiem

Tomorrow our monthly Walsingham Devotion, in the form of the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary with intercessions, will be offered at 1130 before the noon Mass.

Tomorrow week our monthly Requiem Mass will be celebrated: please let Fr Michael have names of those you’d like remembered at that Mass.

Links for Sunday

The link for the Propers for the Assumption is at the end of this email.

And click here for the YouTube live stream.

(If you need these links for Sunday you will need to refer to this email, as we are no longer sending out a Sunday morning reminder email.)

Evensong, Procession, and Benediction is at 6pm on Sunday. This week the music includes Dyson in F and Henschel Tantum ergo. This service is not live streamed.

Flowers

The flowers on Sunday have been given in loving memory of Veronica and Alexander.

We are looking for volunteers to help with the flowers in church. If you have a particular talent for flower arranging and would like to help from time to time or on a regular basis please contact Shawn on 07988 287 663 or shawnwilbe@outlook.com

If you would like to make a donation for flowers, please contact Shawn or speak to Chris Self.

Prayer list

Prisoners and captives

Nazanin Zhagari-Ratcliffe, Ismaeil Maghrebinejad, Nasrin Sotoudeh
Maira Shabhaz
Rohingya Christians in Pakistan, Karen Christians in Burma, and Tigrayan Christians in Ethiopia

The sick

David Fettke, Vallery Tchukov, Sara Vice, Katherine Lee, Lorna Smith, Beth Klausing, Hilary Porter, Bruce Ross-Smith, Benjamin Woolf, James Shrimpton, Tony Rodger, Rachel Pereira, Fr Michael Gudgeon, Chris and Carole Radley, Fr Harry Hodgetts, Rosemary Orr, Martin Berka, Barbara Schiefer, Joan Anna SLG, Poppy Harris-Thompson, Sheila Wood, Jennifer Spreckley, Sue Yesnick, Elizabeth Lyon, Rosina Sargon Eskrya, Malcolm Brown, Tim Knight, Hillary Rodger, Geoff Vardy, Fr John O’Brien, Charles Hoff, Max Fernandes, Mark Willoughby, Craig Williams, Ross Dixon, Bernard Holmes

Those known to us recently departed

Alan Hewson, Julia Flack, Doris Lyons, Olivier Maire Pr

Anniversaries of death

15th – David Tweed
16th – Veronica Lee, Alexander Lee
17th – Dorothy Lane
18th –
19th – David Russell
20th – William Cargill Pr, Harry Allan
21st – George Jeynes, Leroy Lawes

Supporting All Saints

Parish Giving Scheme

You can set up a regular donation to All Saints here.

We use the Parish Giving Scheme, which allows contributions to be anonymous and deals with Gift Aid, saving our office a lot of time. You can read about how the scheme works here.

Donations for general church purposes

To give by BACS please use the following details, advising the Administrator to collect Gift Aid:

PCC All Saints (Charity no. 1132895)
Sort Code 60-09-15
A/C 04559452

Parish Legacy Policy

We are always delighted to hear from anyone who wants to support us with a donation. Our PCC Legacy Policy encourages people to leave bequests specifically to one of our two related charities to be used for purposes of lasting value (rather than day to day costs):

All Saints Choir & Music Trust (Charity # 802994)

or The All Saints Foundation (Charity # 273390).