All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friends,

Sunday is refreshment Sunday, when rose-coloured vestments, flowers in church and some organ music at Sung Mass indicate that we have reached the halfway point in our preparation for Easter: it is a ‘breather’ in Lenten discipline before the final stretch, and also a good moment to evaluate how our observance of the season is going. Lenten resolutions are sometimes over-ambitious and we are reminded that having failed in some of them is no reason to give up. As I’ve been making the Stations of the Cross privately in church most days I’m powerfully reminded by the three falls of Jesus on his way to Calvary and his perseverance in getting up again that God looks kindly on our best efforts and with loving forgiveness on our failures.

Stations of the Cross remains available for your participation on our website and YouTube channel; for me, this year, this simple commemoration of Our Lord’s road to suffering and death, with the hope of glory beyond it, has been a powerful aid in devotion and in focusing on God in the busyness of life. If you don’t have a resource to use for this at home do be in touch with me and I will email you the booklet we use in church.

Tomorrow is our monthly Walsingham Devotion at which the the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary will be prayed and the Mass will be of Our Lady at the Cross, an additional devotional focus on the Passion of the Lord this week. Do join us for that act of worship, in person or online, if you can.

On Saturday 20th March, tomorrow week, I will offer our monthly Requiem Mass; as usual I invite any who would like people named in that Offering to let me know by email or telephone.

S Cyril, 4th century Bishop of Jerusalem and originator of our Holy Week observances urged on a group of pilgrims on Good Friday (as reported in colloquial Latin by the pilgrim Egeria):

‘he tells them not to be weary, but to put their hope in God, who will give them a reward out of all proportion to the effort they have made. When he has given them as much encouragement as he can, he speaks to them as follows: ‘Now off you go home till the next service and sit down for a bit. Then all be back here about eight o’clock so that till midday you can see the Wood of the Cross, that, as every one of us believes, helps us to obtain salvation. And from midday onwards we must assemble here in this place, that is ‘Before the Cross’, again, and give our minds to readings and prayers until nightfall.’

Refreshment Sunday is a good moment for us to do likewise and to focus our minds on the special liturgical observances that lie ahead, rejoicing that this year they can happen in church (!) and will be much more widely available than in the past via the internet.

The Holy Week programme this year (significantly less taxing than that in 4th century Jerusalem) will be as follows:

Palm Sunday: 11am Solemn Entrance, Palm Gospel, blessing of Palms and Sung Mass. Please assemble in church if attending in person.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Holy Week: 12 noon Mass.

Wednesday in Holy Week: 7.30pm Tenebrae

Maundy Thursday: 6pm Sung Mass of the Lord’s Supper and Procession to the Altar of Repose.

Foot washing is not permitted this year.

The watch before the Altar of Repose will conclude at midnight with Compline (or earlier if we cannot guarantee sufficient watchers to keep the church open).

Good Friday: 3pm Solemn Liturgy of the Passion of the Lord.

After the procession and showing of the Cross, it will be venerated at the chancel step by a genuflection or bow, but not by kissing.

Holy Communion will be administered (in one kind, as usual at present) at this Liturgy.

Holy Saturday: 9pm Easter Vigil, Renewal of Baptismal Promises and first Mass of Easter.

Please assemble in church: candles, with orders of service, will be placed on chairs, suitably spaced; the new light will be kindled in the church porch and the Paschal Candle will be processed from there.

Easter Day: 11am Sung Mass

5.15pm Low Mass

6pm Evensong, Te Deum and Benediction

Please note, receiving communion at the Easter Vigil fulfils our Easter obligation so it will help us to manage numbers this year if you choose to attend either the Vigil or the Sunday morning Sung Mass but not both.

Additionally, there will be a 5.15pm Low Mass on Easter Day, so if you are intending to come to Evensong that will be another opportunity to make your Easter communion.

All liturgies can be attended in person.

All except those on the evening of Easter Day will also be available online.

With best wishes

Fr Michael

Links for Sunday

Click on the following links for Sung Mass on SUNDAY at 11am:

Propers for Fourth Sunday of Lent
YouTube link for live stream

Flowers

The flowers this Sunday have been given by Aiden and Ashley Hargreaves-Smith in ever-grateful memory of their beloved mother and grandmother; and in thanksgiving for all mothers, especially those parted from their children. 

If you would like to make a donation for flowers at Easter, please contact Shawn on 07988 287 663 or shawnwilbe@outlook.com or speak to Chris Self.

LENT APPEAL 2021

Proceeds from this year’s Lent Appeal will be divided between:

American Church Soup Kitchen in Tottenham Court Road
towards the costs of their mental health worker.

Anglican Communion Fund
supporting communities throughout the Anglican Communion often in the poorest and most dangerous parts of the world.

Bishop of London’s Lent appeal
focussing on Youth Violence – supporting three charities working in different ways with young people.

How to donate

Please give generously by vising our donation page.

Or you can send a cheque to the Parish Office, made payable to: “Parochial Church All Saints (Lent Appeal)”. If you qualify for Gift Aid, please write ‘Gift Aid’ on the back of the cheque.

Lent Boxes will not be issued this year.

Prayer list

Prisoners and captives:

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, Ismaeil Maghrebinejad, Nasrin Sotoudeh, Mussie Eyob, Maira Shabhaz.

The sick:

David Fettke, Joan Cooper, Vallery Tchukov, Sara Vice, Katherine Lee, Nicky Yeo, 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, Andrew Rodger, Martin Berka, Barbara Schiefer, David Aspenal, Sybil Priestnall, John Mather, Joan Anna SLG, Elizabeth Dennis, Phil Gibbs, Poppy Harris, Sheila Wood, Jennifer Spreckley, David Craig, Sue Yesnick, Stewart Lyon, Beverley Ward.

Those known to us recently departed:

Miles Nelson, Victor Sharp, Beatrice Ansah

Anniversaries of death:

14th – Annie Slater, Basil Whitworth Pr, Ann Sculley

15th – Sydney Heales, Vera Martin, Peggy Shepherd, Joan Miller
James Robertson Pr

16th – Donald Faithfull, Hester Russell 

17th – Edward Aubert, Frank Coomber 

18th – Jessie Thwaites, Edward Mann, Evangeline De Fonseka,
Joy Wright

19th – Joan MacKintosh, Millie Cathcart

20th – Christine Tagoe

Supporting All Saints

Parish Giving Scheme

Thank you to all who give in various ways to support the work of All Saints. Our preferred option for giving is the Parish Giving Scheme.

There are two options for joining the scheme. You can phone 0333 002 1271 and give the parish code: 230623075. Or you can request a form from the parish office.

The Parish Giving Scheme allows contributions to be anonymous and deals with GiftAid, which saves our office a lot of time. The previous online registration facility for the scheme is no longer available. To read about how the scheme works, click 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).