All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear friends,

Last Sunday we launched our PCC’s stewardship campaign. I have been really impressed and touched by the large number of people who have already been in touch with our parish office in the past week, either increasing their regular giving, or setting up a regular donation through the Parish Giving Scheme. I am hugely grateful to them and want to thank them for responding so quickly and so generously.

Our PCC’s campaign is about encouraging every parishioner and friend of All Saints’ to consider prayerfully this Lent how they support our church with their income and time. As part of this, letters have gone out this week to every member of our electoral roll inviting them to make a response to our campaign. I’d like to make a similar appeal to our wider family of friends and supporters, who receive this email each week, for their support.

I preached last Sunday about why generosity is an important part of Christian discipleship. You can watch the homily here. One of the most important things we believe about God is quite simply that he is generous.

At the heart of the Gospel lies the assertion that all there is was created by a loving God who gave us the earth and all it contains. But more than that, God gave his very self to us in his Son Jesus Christ. He held nothing back. He reached out to us in generosity and love in the incarnation of his Son as man.

Christians aim to be generous quite simply because God is. The simplest, easiest and clearest way of being like God is to be generous, to give of oneself for others.

That is why it has always been seen as an obligation of Christian life to support the life of the church so that its ministries and outreach might touch others and transform their lives.

Giving shows your faith is not just focussed on you. It shows you want others to know the love of God in Christ.

Indeed regular giving to a church like All Saints’ might seem a very ordinary or mechanical thing – but your gift, given lovingly and sacrificially, can actually become a kind of sacrament. It can become an outward sign of your inner faith, a tangible expression of your love for God, and your desire to see this community grow, thrive and communicate to others the love of God for them.

Our PCC is making a series of simple requests to all who call All Saints’ their spiritual home:

To those who don’t yet give regularly through the Parish Giving Scheme
If you don’t already give through the Parish Giving Scheme and live in the UK, could you consider making a regular monthly donation to All Saints through it? You simply go to the link here, click on “set up a regular donation,” and you’ll be taken to our Parish Giving page. There you can set up an account and decide how much you want to give.

To those who already give either by direct debit or the Parish Giving Scheme
If you already give regularly each month electronically, could you consider whether you are able to increase your regular donation? Even a small regular increase would make a huge difference over the long term and would help safeguard the financial future of our parish, particularly in the face of the inflation we are having to deal with on nearly every front.

To the Friends of All Saints
If you are a Friend of All Saints’, would you consider increasing your donation to the Friends? If you are in the category of “Friend,” might you be able to move up to the category of “Benefactor.” And if you are a “Benefactor” in our Friends Scheme, might you be able to support us at “Patron” level? Could you also encourage others to join the Friends scheme?

If you are not yet a member of the Friends and would like to join, you can find out more about the scheme here, and join via this link if you live in the UK and via this link if you live outside the UK.

Donations from abroad
We are pleased to announce that our parish now has a Paypal account which should make payments from outside the UK much easier. We are aware that donations via CAF from America have been causing problems and want to apologise to our North American Friends for the inconvenience you have experienced. It is now possible to join the Friends via our Paypal account here, and to make a regular donation to All Saints’ via Paypal here.

This Sunday, I will preach on how we might consider giving of TIME as part of our support of the church. I pray this will help people to reflect on how they might be able to give in ways that are not just financial as part of their generous response to God’s love.

With my thanks and prayers for a holy Lent, and my thanks to you for your support and generosity,

Fr Peter

Ministry to the Sick

Now that Fr Alan Rimmer has joined our clergy staff, a number of key areas of our parish’s life will now be his responsibility. One of the most important is our ministry to the sick, housebound and dying, which Fr Alan will now be in charge of.

If you need to be in touch with All Saints’ about someone you know who needs the presence of a priest, or if you are taken sick yourself, please be in touch directly with Fr Alan rather than Fr Peter.

Fr Alan will also be coordinating our ministry to those who regularly receive communion in their own homes and should be your first port of call for any enquiries about that ministry, too.

Fr Alan will also be in charge of the sick list and the coordination of our parish’s ministry of intercession, so please be in touch directly with him or our parish office rather than with Fr Peter if you have any names that need adding or removing from the sick list.

Mark Bushby Scholarship Fund

Jennifer Snapes is making a donation to the Mark Bushby Scholarship Fund from her fee for singing in the choir at Sunday morning’s High Mass; and James Sherwood is making a donation from his fee for Evensong and Benediction.

Mark sang at All Saints’ between 2004 and 2015, and died suddenly in 2019. For more information about the Fund, and if you would like to make your own donation, please visit asms.uk/bushby.

A Laetare Sunday treat

Join us for a mid-Lent parish trip to the Royal Academy to see their latest exhibition focussed on the treasures of Spanish art from the Hispanic Society of America in New York.

The visit will take place as a mid-Lent Laetare treat on Sunday 19th March at 3.00 pm. The idea is that there should be time enough for parishioners to grab a quick bite to eat for lunch, and then make their way to the Royal Academy from Margaret Street after the High Mass, but with enough time to return for Evensong for those who wish to be back for that. Be in touch with our parish office to book a ticket (£20 each).

Farewell and thanks, Peter Little

What a bitter-sweet moment we had at the end of the 12 noon Mass on Tuesday. We said farewell to Peter Little, who has been our parish sacristan and is moving on to other employment. We thanked him for all he has contributed to our parish, and wished him well in his new job. You can watch the short presentation we made to him at the end of the Mass here.

All Saints’ Lent Lecture:
Fruits of the Spirit – Art from the Heart

We are very pleased that the curator of the National Gallery’s virtual exhibition entitled, “Fruits of the Spirit – Art from the Heart,” the Revd Dr Ayla Lepine, will give our Lent Lecture in March on the topic of this interesting project.

You “visit” the exhibition by clicking on the link here to enter a virtual gallery in the comfort of your own home wherever you are in the world.

The lecture will take place at All Saints’ in person and online on Thursday 23rd March at 7.30 pm.

Stations of the Cross

Stations of the Cross take place every Friday in Lent at 7.00 pm following the 6.30 pm evening Mass.

Zoom Theology: the Sacrament of Easter

Our next online Zoom Theology seminar will take place on Tuesday 14th March 2023 at 7.00 pm, and will be entitled, “The Sacrament of Easter: the Rites of Holy Week”

Fr Jeremy Haselock will explore with us the rich history of the rites of Holy Week: their origins; how we should celebrate them now; and their theological significance. Participants are encouraged to read the excellent work which Fr Jeremy co-authored with Roger Greenacre, “The Sacrament of Easter,” in preparation for this seminar. Zoom link can be found on our parish website here.

Feast of the Annunciation 2023

Saturday 25th March 2023
High Mass  12 noon
Preacher: The Revd Christopher Trundle, Vicar, Our Most Holy Redeemer, Clerkenwell, and Chair of the House of Clergy, Diocese of London.
Music: Haydn, Jugendmesse; Guerrero, Ave, Virgo Sanctissima.

Attendance last Sunday

Links for Sunday

The links for the livestream and service sheet for this Sunday’s High Mass are at the end of this email.

Evensong and Benediction takes place at 6pm this Sunday. Music will include Morley’s Service in Fauxbourdons and Victoria’s Versa est in luctum.

Prayer list

The sick

Fr. Harry Hodgetts, Amanda Barrett, Greg Loveday, Theresa Moses, Don McWhinney, Martin Berka, Pete Turner, James Rodger, Andrew Rodger, David Craig, Charles Thompson, Elizabeth Lyon

Anniversaries of death

March 5th – George Holden Pr. (fourth vicar of All Saints’), Gwen Ogilvy
6th – Alice Sutton
7th – Phyllis Wickner, Brigid Beattie-Moriarty
8th – George Gorse, Hope Harris, John Cook
9th – Arthur Smallwood
10th – Alice Styan, Dorothy Gregory, Dennis Cooper Pr.
11th – Charles Mills, Rosie Bullock, Peter Harding Pr., Clark Vaugham

The Friends of All Saints’

March 5th – Stuart Chillingworth, Sandy Christian, Laurence Clark, Roger Clark, Catharine Clarke, Sr. Jane Cledwyn-Davies
6th – David and Mavis Cleggett, Graham Colville, Alan Cook, Patrick Cook, Eliza Coomber, Karolyn Cooper
7th – William Cooper Bailey, Tony Coote, Peter Coulson, Steven Cox, Yvonne Craig, Kirill Dashkovskiy
8th – Christopher Davies, Robert Davies, Francis Davis, Jack de Gruiter, Laura Denton, Suzanna Eaton, Linda Edwards
9th – Pamela Edwards, John Eldridge, Terrence Ellsworth, Sue Enoch, Carolyn Farrar, Sue Feakin
10th – Adrian Felaar, Julia Fielden, Janice Fielden, Nigel Fisher, Gloria Fleming, Stuart Fletcher
11th – Christopher Forman, Anthony Fox, Charlotte Gauthier, Margaret Goddard, Paul Golding, John Goldsmith

Service times this week