Weekly Email – Easter 5
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Dear friends,
I write in the middle of Mary’s month of May. It has long been the tradition of the church, in this period of spring, rebirth, and Easter hope to think particularly about Mary, and to celebrate her role in the history of our salvation.
I heartily commend to you a wonderful 4 minute video which Bishop Rowan Williams has just produced for the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, and which can he found here. He explains why May is a good time to focus on Mary, and why we crown statues of her in this month.
Just as our earthly monarch, Queen Elizabeth, stands for continuity in our national life, Mary stands for continuity in a theological sense too, Bishop Rowan points out. As Daughter of Zion, she shows and lives out the continuity between the old and new covenants. She reveals to us that the promises God made long ago to our father in faith, Abraham, come to fruition in her child bearing.
An earthly monarch also presents that which has most integrity and solidity amongst the changes and shifts of politics, culture and economics. So too Mary reveals what human life lived with true integrity looks like, founded on the solid rock of God’s grace and obedience to his will.
In this sense, Bishop Rowan argues, it makes perfect sense to crown a statue of Mary in May and hail her as “Queen” so as to celebrate these deep truths of our faith revealed in her life.
There are many opportunities to show our love and devotion to Our Lady during this marian month of May. Many parishioners of All Saints’ rejoiced in being able to attend the National Pilgrimage at Walsingham two weeks ago, for example.
This Saturday (14th May) also sees the Society of Mary May Devotion take place at S. Silas’, Kentish Town, (beginning at 12 noon). To enable people to attend the SOM May Devotion, our own usual Walsingham cell rosary devotion will not take place this Saturday and we will simply have a 12 noon Mass.
However we choose to keep this month, let us keep Mary the Mother of Jesus before our eyes as a model of faithfulness and an example of charity that we can imitate on our own Christian pilgrimage through life.
Fr Peter
Many congratulations to Marcel, who was baptised last week at the Sunday High Mass. We welcome you to the household of faith!
Fr Michael’s concert on Tuesday 24th May
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!
Stephanie Trick and Paolo Alderighi, who will perform at Fr Michael’s concert.
Farewell collection for Fr Michael
If you would like to contribute to our farewell gift for Fr Michael, please make a donation to our PCC account, and email Chris Self to let us know that you want your gift to be put towards the collection for Fr Michael. Alternatively, Chris can also accept a cheque if you prefer. Chris can be contacted by email here: chris_self@btinternet.com
Welcome to Jonathan, our new parish office administrator
We welcome Jonathan Pease as our new parish office administrator. He has taken over the role from James Sherwood and began working in the parish office this week. Jonathan writes to introduce himself:
I look forward to meeting many of you over the coming weeks in my new role as Parish Office Administrator.
I have long enjoyed visiting All Saints’, Margaret Street and experiencing the unique beauty of worship here, so I feel very privileged to know that I have a small part to play in the church’s future.
Apart from this position, I am active in church music in east London, particularly as Director of Music at St. Peter’s London Docks in Wapping, and enjoy cruising the waterways of London by houseboat.
James Sherwood (left) introducing Jonathan Pease (right), our new parish administrator, to the complexities of our parish’s bureaucracy during a productive hand over session this week.
Guest preacher this Sunday
We look forward to welcoming this Sunday the Revd Carol Barrett Ford as our guest preacher. She will offer the homily at the 11.00 am High Mass. Mthr Carol is the Vicar of St Martin’s, Gospel Oak, London.
Corpus Christi 2022
Please put our celebration of Corpus Christi on Thursday 16th June at 6.15 pm in your diaries.
It is a wonderful opportunity to proclaim our faith in Jesus Christ to the world, through our celebration of the Mass and procession down Oxford Street. We are hoping many people from other parishes will, once again, join us. Please make being here a high priority. It should be a wonderful evening!
Music: Mozart, Missa Brevis in G & Ave verum; Croce, O sacrum convivium; Henschel, Tantum Ergo.
Preacher: The Revd Max Bayliss, Chaplain of Queens’ College, Cambridge.
In our homily last Sunday, Fr Peter meditated on what it means for Jesus to say he “knows” his sheep. As we also celebrated Marcel’s baptism, Fr Peter reflected on that sacrament as an invitation to know God and be known by him. Watch again here.
Parish lunches on 29th May and 5th June
In order to celebrate Fr Michael’s final Sunday (which will also be our Dedication Festival and the Friends’ Sunday) on Sunday 29th May, and also to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee a week later on Sunday 5th June, we will be organising two bring-and-share parish lunches after the High Mass.
The idea is that a free buffet lunch will be laid out in the Parish Room on both Sundays, which can then be shared by all present in the courtyard over drinks.
We need people to volunteer to bring food to share on both occasions. Chris Self and Kate Hodgetts will be in charge of organising what is needed. Please be in touch with them if you want to contribute something.
Thank you to everyone who attended our Zoom Theology seminar on Tuesday on Graham Greene, and especially to Fr Michael Bowie for giving a fascinating talk on Greene’s Catholic novels. Our next Zoom Theology session looks at cathedrals in literature and examines the question of the importance of sacred architecture for our faith. More details here.
Saturday evening Vigil Mass
Don’t forget that since Easter Day, we have restored our 6.15 pm Saturday evening Vigil Mass of Sunday each week. If you can’t make church on Sunday morning, you can come on Saturday night and make your Sunday communion.
Vigil Mass: Every Saturday at 6.15 pm
Links for Sunday
The link for the Propers for Easter 5 is at the end of this email. And click here for the YouTube live stream.
Evensong and Benediction is at 6pm on Sunday. The music includes Morley First Service, Lassus Surrexit Pastor Bonus, and Bach Benediction hymns.
Flowers
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
The sick
Fr Harry Hodgetts, Elizabeth Lyon, James Shrimpton, David Robin, Martin Berka, Gloria Fleming, Sister Benedicta SLG, Sister Adrian SLG, Amanda Barrett, Laura Bevan, Fr Victor Stock.
Those known to us recently departed
John Minnett, Joan Lyon, Colin Semper Pr, Manisha Burke, Pamela Botsford.
Anniversaries of death
15th – Elsie Rybczk, Winifred Beavan, Muriel Burling, John Carter
16th – Elsie Scott, Charles Simon, Richard Britten
17th – Lucy Heath, Wilhelmina Ward
18th – Michael White-Cooper Pr, William Crane, Thomas O’Neil Pr, Flora Clutterham, Charles Oram
19th – Frank Biggart, Mary Cottell, Betty Johnson
20th – Eliza Pountney, Eric Arnold
21st – Alan James, Wendy Johnson
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).
CTiW
Churches Together in Westminster invite you to their annual Choral Evensong for Pentecost which is very kindly being hosted by Fr Matthew Catterick, at St Saviour’s Pimlico at 5pm on Sunday, 5 June. The guest preacher will be Fr Andrii Malysh from the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, Duke Street.