Weekly Email – Easter 3
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Dear friends,
I am sure most of you will have heard by now the news announced last week that that Fr Michael is to leave us at the end of May to become the new vicar of St Peter’s Eastern Hill, Melbourne, Australia.
I know I am not the only one to feel a huge sadness that Fr Michael will be leaving our parish. Many people have spoken to me already about how much we will all miss him, and how much he has contributed to the life of All Saints’.
We all owe him so much for the heroic way in which he led this parish through the vicissitudes of COVID lockdowns, and for guiding All Saints’ in the interregnum period in which it recently had no vicar.
Whilst we are sad to see Fr Michael go, we all wish him well in his new parish and congratulate him on this significant and prestigious appointment. We will be sure to keep him in our prayers over the coming months. It will be interesting to see if connections between All Saints’ and St Peter’s Eastern Hill might emerge. I can think of many ways in which our two very similar parishes might be able to support and encourage each other in the future.
Fr Michael’s last Sunday with us will be Sunday 29th May. We intend to make a presentation to him at the 11.00 am High Mass and so are organising a special collection for him to thank him for his many years of service and ministry here. Fr Michael has intimated to me that the costs of moving to Australia are proving very high indeed and that they will only be partially covered by the church. At a time in which he is seeking to pack and down-size, I sense the thing he will find most helpful will be a cash gift.
If you would like to contribute to this, please be in touch with Chris Self. Either send him a cheque made payable to All Saints’ PCC, or make an electronic transfer to our parish account and email Chris to let him know what the donation is for. On this occasion, gifts of this sort for an individual can not be Gift Aided.
I will certainly be making a substantial contribution to his collection myself to express my personal gratitude to Fr Michael for all the support, help and encouragement he has shown to me as a colleague, and I would urge you to do the same.
Please put Fr Michael’s last Sunday, 29th May, in your diary as a day it will be particularly important to be present in church. Until then, let us all join in offering Fr Michael our heartfelt congratulations on his appointment to St Peter’s, Eastern Hill, and in expressing our thanks to him for all we have received from God at All Saints’ through his priestly ministry among us.
Fr Peter
“Lift up your hearts. We lift them up unto the Lord!” The Sursum Corda at our High Mass on Easter Sunday. Watch again here.
Guest Preacher this Sunday
We are pleased and honoured to welcome as our guest preacher at the 11.00 am High Mass this Sunday Fr Steve Rice, the Rector of St Timothy’s, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA. Under Fr Steve’s leadership, St Timothy’s has grown to be one of the largest Anglo-Catholic parishes in America, and has an impressive array of imaginative an inspiring ministries.
Fr Steve will also be giving a short presentation after the High Mass about the life of his parish, especially the extraordinary renewal of the church building which St Timothy’s have undertaken recently (and which was reported upon in the Liturgical Arts Journal here). His talk will be entitled, “The beauty of holiness and the holiness of beauty – why our church buildings matter,” and will be given in our parish room after the High Mass.
We look forward to welcoming Fr Steve Rice as our guest preacher at the 11.00 am High Mass on Sunday. Find out more about his parish, St Timothy’s Winston-Salem, here.
Fr Michael’s concert on Tuesday 24th May
As he announced last Sunday morning, Fr Michael will host a piano jazz concert on Tuesday 24th May in church, starting at 7.30pm.
He originally organised this as a celebration of his 30th anniversary of priesting, which occurs in June, but is delighted that it will now be part of his farewell to All Saints after just over eight years as Assistant Priest.
The pianists, with whom he became friends online during the lockdowns, are Stephanie Trick and Paolo Alderighi, a married couple from St Louis Missouri and Milan, are classically-trained virtuoso jazz performers (www.paoloandstephanie.com/biography) and Fr Michael has hired two Steinway grand pianos for the evening.
They have performed in jazz venues in London before and (like All Saints!) made the most of the lockdowns by starting a YouTube channel on which they perform monthly concerts and give monthly lectures. You can see a couple of performances here and here and access others via their website:
The repertoire ranges from Ragtime and stride piano (of which Stephanie is one of the leading performers in the world; her hero being James P Johnson) to Swing and the Great American Songbook (Paolo’s inspiration being Erroll Garner).
Fr Michael invites you to join him for the evening; there will be no charge for attending, but you are of course able to make a donation to All Saints at the door!
Bishop Rowan Williams preaches on Easter Sunday morning at our High Mass. Don’t forget that all his homilies from Holy Week remain on our YouTube channel and can be listened again to there.
Walsingham National Pilgrimage
The coach for the Walsingham National Pilgrimage leaves All Saints’, Margaret Street, at 7.30 am prompt on Monday 1st May. If you have not already paid, please pay £18 on the day. There are still a few seats left; please contact Ross Buchanan on 07905 863578.
“May the light of Christ, rising in glory, dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds.” Bishop Rowan presiding our Easter Vigil. Watch again here.
Links for Sunday
The link for the Propers for Easter 3 is at the end of this email. Click here for the YouTube live stream.
Evensong and Benediction is at 6pm. The music includes Wood Canticle in E flat (no.2), Matthew Martin Haec Dies, Elgar O salutaris, and Duruflé Tantum ergo.
Flowers
The flowers this week have been given by Paul Mginah to mark his appreciation for the UMCA Anglican Missionaries who faithfully propagated the divine Gospel in the Diocese of South West Tanganyika. These missionaries carried out a remarkable ethical foundation in Education, Health and human development and above all the virtues of Liturgy – The Zanzibar Rite.
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
Ismaeil Maghrebinejad, Nasrin Sotoudeh
Maira Shabhaz
Rohingya Christians in Pakistan, Karen Christians in Burma, Tigrayan Christians in Ethiopia
The sick
Fr Harry Hodgetts, Elizabeth Lyon, James Shrimpton, David Robin, Martin Berka, Gloria Fleming, Sister Benedicta SLG, Sister Adrian SLG, Amanda Barrett
Those known to us recently departed
John Minnett, Joan Lyon, Colin Semper Pr, Manisha Burke, Pamela Botsford
Anniversaries of death
1st – Douglas Robertson, Jane Mather
2nd – John Beard, Trevor Stevens Pr
3rd – Mary Forsyth, Dolly Powell
4th – Cecil Meyer, Phyllis Matthews, Catherine Towers, Douglas Brough, Margaret Spencer
5th – Alfred Adams, Paul Curno
6th – Kathleen Wolfenden, Melinda Powell, John Norman, Jack Symes
7th – Odo Flunt, Norman Sandwith, William Faithfull, Phyllis MacKenow, Dorothy Faithfull
8th – Florence Hope, Richard Masheder Pr, Fred Bramma, Charles Cunnington, John Mather
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 GiftAid, 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).