Weekly Email – Epiphany 2
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Dear friends,
I write this week to appeal for your help and support in funding our music programme over the next twelve months.
As you may remember, last year we accomplished the amazing feat of raising £15,000 in sponsorship to help cover our music budget. I am so grateful to all those who so generously contributed to that campaign.
I am appealing afresh to all friends and parishioners of All Saints’ for help. We need to raise a similar sum again this year to ensure that our music budget balances and that our rich and varied music programme is able to continue through the next twelve months.
The big “ask” I want to make is this: are you able to sponsor either the whole or part of the music at a High Mass or an Evensong at some point this year as a way of supporting the life of this parish and its liturgical mission? We would be hugely grateful if you were.
The music at a liturgy with full choir such as a High Mass or Evensong and Benediction costs around £1,000 per service. You may wish to sponsor the music at a particular liturgy in memory of a love one or friend whose anniversary of death it is. You might want to give thanks for a significant birthday by covering the music costs of the Sunday nearest the Big Day. You may feel prompted to give thanks for a particular blessing, or answer to prayer by making an offering to help cover the music on a specific feast day.
I hasten to add that any contribution, no matter how large or small will be received with joy and gratitude. You do not have to be able to afford the whole costs of a specific service to contribute – do be in touch if you wish to sponsor part of the costs, or a specific sum less than £1,000.
Please email our parish office (office@asms.uk) if you wish to make a contribution to this appeal. If you are a British tax payer, it is really helpful for us to be able to claim back the Gift Aid on your gift. The best way of enabling this is to make the donation through our CAF account here. If you are an American tax payer, do not forget that you can make the donation in dollars and claim the tax back on your donation in the United States through our Chapel and York account here.
In addition to appealing for larger sums, we are also aiming to sponsor the cost of music on one Sunday – Easter Day – through an appeal for a number of smaller gifts of £100 and £50. From Sunday morning onwards, you will be able to contribute to this in the courtyard after the High Mass. Alternatively, you can simply email the parish office and let us know you would like to contribute to this through a gift of £50 or £100 made electronically.
Our parish has an incredibly rich and varied music programme which is offered at the highest of standards by our choir of professional and experienced musicians. To put it bluntly, music of this quality does not come cheap. Our total music budget each year costs around £120,000. It is often assumed that this is paid for by income from our Choir and Music Trust Fund. This not the case. The Choir and Music Trust Fund only provides income each year of around £60,000 – in other words only around 50% of the total music budget. The other half of our music costs has to be found each year from our PCC annual budget and therefore from annual giving. Your support and donations, therefore, will such a huge difference to allowing our parish’s musical and liturgical tradition to continue.
If we want to preserve this wonderful musical tradition that God uses so powerfully to touch and change people, we all need to value, support and contribute to its costs. I myself will be making a donation to All Saints’ as part of this campaign, and I urge you to as well. I am sure the generosity of our parishioners can be relied upon to preserve a musical tradition for which our parish is famous, and of which we may justifiably be proud.
Fr Peter
The preacher at last Sunday’s High Mass was Fr Julian Browning. The music included: Missa brevis in B-flat, K. 275, Mozart; and See, see the Word is incarnate, Gibbons. You can watch the liturgy again here.
British Library: Medieval Women
There are a few tickets remaining for the parish trip which will take place on Tuesday 28th January 2025 at 6.00 pm to the British Library to see a new exhibition called, “Medieval Women: in their own words.”
Our visit to “Medieval Women” will then be followed by supper together at Pizza Express on the Euston Road, opposite the Library. The exhibition costs £15 and the two course dinner at Pizza Express is £30. You can book your tickets and places for the dinner via Eventbrite here.
A week after our visit to the exhibition, there will be the opportunity to discuss, analyse and debate what we saw further through one of our Zoom Theology seminars on Tuesday 4th February at 7.00 pm.
Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
There will be a special Carol Service for Candlemas on Sunday 2nd February at 6.00 pm. The liturgy will conclude with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The Carol Service’s music will include: Maria wallt zum Heiligtum, Eccard; Long since in Egypt, Parry; Richte mich, Gott, Mendelssohn; Hail Gladdening Light, Wood; Hodie Beata Virgo, Philips; Tantum Ergo, Victoria.
Fr Peter was delighted and honoured to be invited to sing Evensong for the Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks on Wednesday evening by their current Master, parishioner of All Saints’, Colin Podmore. The liturgy took place at St Martin within Ludgate. Here is Colin in his splendid robes of office in the Cutlers’ Hall, at the beautiful reception which followed their special Epiphany Evensong.
The Society of King Charles the Martyr
The Annual Commemoration by the Society of King Charles the Martyr of the saintly death of Charles I will take place at All Saints’ on Thursday 30th January 2025 at 12 noon with a Solemn High Mass. The preacher will be Fr Christopher Johnson, Vicar of Horbury. This will be followed by the opportunity to reverence the Society’s relics of the Royal Martyr. All parishioners of All Saints’ are welcome to attend the liturgy.
The commemoration is taking place at All Saints’ this year because the Banqueting House in Whitehall is once again unavailable because of restoration and building works.
The recent cold weather has brought out some eye-catching hats amongst clergy and parishioners alike on Sundays recently! At least everyone kept warm!
Homeless Shelter
Our second evening staffing the winter homeless shelter at the American International Church on Tottenham Court Road will take place during the evening and night of Wednesday 5th February/Thursday 6th February 2025.
There is an array of different duties that need filling: we need volunteers to prepare and make beds; cook a meal; spend time with our homeless guests; sleep overnight; and then prepare breakfast in the morning.
Please be in touch with the parish office (office@asms.uk) if you would like to volunteer, letting us know what job you would like to do and how long you can volunteer for.
Join us in our parish bar for refreshment and fellowship after the High Mass and after Evensong each Sunday.
Shrove Tuesday Pancake Party
Fr Alan will be hosting a pancake party for our young adults after the 6.30 pm Mass on Shrove Tuesday. Please be in touch with him if you would like to attend.
Attendance last Sunday
For your prayers
The Friends of All Saints’ Margaret Street:
19th – Genevieve Gomi, Canon Michael Gudgeon, Sheelagh Gudgeon, Ginger and Del Hall, Monica Joan Hall
20th – Canon Richard Hanford, Paul Hannah, Jillian Hargreaves, Christopher Harlow-Jennings, Patrick Hartley, The Rev’d Canon Jeremy Haselock
21st – Eoghan Healy, Rebecca Hirst, Fr. David Hobden, James and Gwendoline Holdcroft, The Rev’d Canon Graham Holcombe, Rosy Holt, Bishop David Hope
22nd – Richard Hoskinson, Marissa Howard-McNatt, Fr David Hutt, Alfred Imhoff, David James, Andrew Jervis, Stephen Jury, Malcolm Kemp
23rd – Alan Kimbrough, Brenda Koupis, Stanislav Kudryashov, Christopher Laws, Margaret Leggett
24th – Cornelius Logue, Frau Dr Christiane Loidl-Rainey, Nigel Lynn, Henry Macey, Bishop Michael Marshall, Robert Mason, Graham Mather
25th – Judith Mather, The Ven Fr Stephen McClatchie, John McWhinney, Colin Menzies, Amanda Miller
The sick:
Karan Bilimoria, Zara Bilimoria, David Craig, Tony Hawkins, Fr Harry Hodgetts, Michael Lamprell, Dorothea Liebe-Kreutzner, Elizabeth Lyon, James Rodger
The recently departed:
Joan Cooper, Fr Tony Coulson, John Cragg, Jack de Gruiter, Jan Smith, Eve Tarrant
The faithful departed:
19th – Arnold Lawson
20th – Kate Gorge, Josephine Whittley
21st – Harris Charlton, William Clark, Hannah Berry, John Snoswell, Mary Bishop, Virginia Smith, Isabella Fotheringham, Frank Whitehill, Lilian Yorke, Gwyneth Hopkins, Teresa Loidl
22nd – Amony Lay, Annie Waggett, Maggie Dibley, Derek Allen Pr, Jim Swanton, Edith Laing
23rd – Kenneth Christie
25th – Ethel Boileau, Hilda Lawson, Watroslav Reith, Anthony Halsey Pr
Services this Week
Saturday 18th January – Feria
12 noon Low Mass of Requiem
6.00 pm Confessions
6.30 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday
Sunday 19th January – Epiphany II
8.30 am Low Mass
11 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Evensong and Benediction
Monday 20th January – Feria
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Tuesday 21st January – St Agnes
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Wednesday 22nd January – Feria
12 noon Low Mass
5.30 pm Holy Hour
6.30 pm Low Mass
Thursday 23rd January – Feria
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Friday 24th January – St Frances de Sales
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Saturday 25th January – Conversion of St Paul
12 noon Low Mass of Requiem
6.00 pm Confessions
6.30 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday
Sunday 26th January – Epiphany III
8.30 am Low Mass
11 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Evensong and Benediction