All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear friends,

The beginning of each calendar year prompts clergy to prepare the obligatory statistical return they have to make to the diocese on the previous twelve months. It marks a good opportunity to reflect on congregational attendance and a number of other dynamics within the worshiping life of our parish.

The figures for 2025 are now calculated and the good news is that Sunday congregational attendance at All Saints’ has continued to grow through the past 12 months.

Our congregation has increased in size again by nearly a tenth. The average total in person Sunday attendance for 2025 was 217.4. This is a 9% increase on the average for 2024, which was 199.

This marks a significant achievement in terms of the goals we set ourselves two years ago in our Parish Mission Action Plan. One of the aspirations laid out in that document was that our average Sunday attendance should grow to be at least 200 by 2029.

These results mean we have achieved this Mission Action Plan goal three years early. It should come as a cause of great joy and thanksgiving for us that God has blessed our efforts and called so many people to worship with us in 2025.

I want to thank all those people whose hard work and effort has contributed to this growth: those who organise and participate in our welcome and refreshments rotas; everyone who works in our parish bar; our church welcomers and sidesmen; all those who run our live-streaming and contribute to our social media presence, along with those who run our parish office and finances; and especially those whose efforts provide beautiful liturgies week by week, such as our choir, servers, and music staff.

Your love of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has shown, and your desire to see our parish flourish has been a joy to see.

The 2025 increase is due to strong attendances during the first six months or so of 2025 which were clearly larger than the year before. The summer of 2025 didn’t see quite as many visitors worshipping with us as in years past, but the figures picked up again through the autumn and we had a series of very well-attended liturgies through Advent.

The figures for our online congregation have also increased through 2025, by 5% from a Sunday average of 93.6 in 2024 to 98.6 in 2025. This means that if you add our in person and online figures together, our average Sunday total participation in the liturgies we offer for 2025 was 316.

One very noticeable trend is the way in which attendance on Sunday evenings has been growing strongly over the past four years. Sunday evenings also see a larger proportion of our younger parishioners present with us than do Sunday mornings.

There has been much written over the past few years about a renaissance of interest amongst Gen Z young adults in traditional liturgies like Evensong. Our attendance patterns certainly seem to reflect elements of these narratives.

Average attendance at Sunday Evensong and Benediction was 73.2 in 2025, an increase on the previous year’s figure of 67.3. Our Evensong congregation has grown significantly since the deep dip after the COVID lockdowns and is now noticeably higher than it was in 2019.

If you add those who attend Evensong online to our in person figures for Sunday evening worship, this increase is even more pronounced. The combined figure including in person and online worshippers for 2025 now stands at an average participation of 97.1 for Sunday Evensong, which is nearly twice the average for 2019 which was 50.8.

I want to pay particular tribute to those who staff our parish bar on Sunday evenings. The fellowship and conviviality on offer in our parish club after the evening office each week has played a crucial role in sustaining these impressive Sunday evening statistics. The life of our bar offers a wonderful way of welcoming newcomers, prompting visitors to return, giving an esprit de corps to our younger parishioners, and creating a distinct sense of community amongst those who worship with us on Sunday evenings.

There is so much we can give thanks for as we look back over the past year. It gives me such joy to see the efforts of so many of our parishioners rewarded by God as he calls more and more people to encounter him here.

Let us pray that he will give us the courage, wisdom and love we need to continue to foster a spirit of openness and welcome; and let us rejoice at the ways in which Christ makes himself known in our midst, in the community of his Body the church, and in the solemn celebration of the mysteries of our faith.

Fr Peter

Confirmation classes begin

Please note that this year’s first confirmation class for those preparing for the Sacraments of Initiation begins on Wednesday 21st January at 7.00 pm after the evening Mass.

If you would like to be baptized and/or confirmed, please be in touch with Fr Alan. There is still time for people to join the group of candidates.

The confirmation will take place at the 11.00 am High Mass on Sunday 21st June 2026. Do put this in your diary as a special day to support our candidates as they make this important step  in their journey of faith.

Zoom Theology

We have two of our online Zoom Theology Seminars over the coming weeks in swift succession. To attend any of them, simply follow the link here.

Blaise Pascal: The Man who Made the Modern World
7pm, Tuesday, 27th January, 2026

Bishop Graham Tomlin, until 2022 Bishop of Kensington, is President of St Mellitus College, and leads the Church of England’s Centre for Cultural Witness.

We are delighted that Dr Tomlin will join us to discuss his recent book Blaise Pascal: The Man Who Made the Modern World, which draws on his longstanding interest and extensive academic research in the field.

The seventeenth century polymath’s misunderstood ‘wager’ is only one small aspect of an extraordinary life. Although he died at 39, Pascal’s work covered numerous disciplines, and his writing explores especially movingly topics of faith, reason and human existence.

Primate of All England: The Role of the Archbishop of Canterbury – 7pm, Tuesday, 3rd February, 2026

In the wake of the appointment of a new Archbishop after a lengthy process, we have the opportunity to learn more about the peculiarities and changing nature of the role over the years.

We are grateful that our own Dr Colin Podmore, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society who served in several senior roles in the Church of England, including as Clerk to the General Synod, will talk to us from his own extensive experience and study of the topic.

American Friends of All Saints’

There will be a drinks party held on Friday 20th March 2026 at the House of the Redeemer, New York City at 6.30 pm to celebrate the contribution to our parish’s life made by the American Friends of All Saints’, Margaret Street.

We hope this special occasion will be an opportunity for American Friends who live in or near New York to re-connect with All Saints’ and for us to thank our American benefactors for their support. Both Fr Alan and Fr Peter will be present.

This drinks party will be proceeded by a Mass celebrated by Fr in the Chapel of the House of the Redeemer at 6.00 pm, giving thanks for the life of All Saints’, for any who wish to attend.

If you live anywhere near New York City, do put this event on Friday 20th March in your diaries and come and see us. It will be wonderful to see new friends and old. You can book a ticket for the event via Eventbrite here.

Death in Canterbury: concert performances of comedy musical

James Sherwood has written a musical about Thomas Becket. There are concert performances next week, Tuesday 13th and Wednesday 14th January at 7.30pm in the Hall of St Botolph without Bishopsgate EC2M 3TL

Tickets can be purchased by visiting this page or from SherwoodJam.com

Recipients of the All Saints Weekly Email can enter the Coupon Code “ASMS” to enjoy a special discount on ticket purchases. Alternatively, tickets may be purchased from James directly in the courtyard after Mass and after Evensong and Benediction on Sunday.

Readers with long memories may remember James’s article in the All Saints Parish Paper in August 2021, describing his original attempts to launch the musical to coincide with S Thomas’s 850th anniversary in 2020. Covid foiled that first attempt, but it’s finally back.

James Sherwood is a long-standing member of All Saints Choir, and sometime Parish Office Administrator. His co-writer James Cary is a sitcom writer (Miranda, Bluestone 42) and was until recently a member of the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England.

Join the All Saints’ Music Patrons

Please consider taking out membership of our Music Patrons Scheme.  This involves donating at least £10 a month to our Music and Choir Trust.

The Patrons Scheme continues to grow steadily. So far the number of Patrons has increased since we reported last to 19 people, contributing between them £630 per month. This equates to £7,560 per year (a total of £9,072 with Gift Aid).

To join the Music Patrons of All Saints’, simply set up a regular gift of at least £10 a month via this link. If you are an American tax payer, you can become a Music Patron by making a regular gift of at least $15 a month via our Chapel and York account here.

Attendance last Sunday