Weekly Email – Third Sunday of Lent
Documents
Dear friends,
This Sunday marks the beginning of a significant exercise that takes place once every six years in the life of a Church of England parish – namely the creation of a new Electoral Roll. The “Electoral Roll” is, if you like, the membership list of our parish community – it is the legal record of all the baptized who worship here regularly in person and who consider themselves part of this parish community.
Once every six years, this membership list has to be wiped clean and a new one is created. Every single member of the All Saints’ congregation needs to fill in a new form in the next few weeks to be entered on the new list.
It doesn’t matter whether you were on the old roll or not – unless you fill in a form now you will not be on the new Electoral Roll and will no longer formally be considered a member of this parish.
The deadline for applying for the new Electoral Roll is Saturday 10th May 2025. The new Roll is then presented to the Annual Parochial Church Meeting on Sunday 25th May 2025.
You can enrol yourself in one of two ways. The first is to do it online by filling in the form here and submitting it electronically. This is the simplest, quickest and easiest way. Alternatively, you can apply using a paper form that can be handed in on Sunday mornings or posted to the parish office. A copy of the paper form is enclosed as a pdf with this email, which you are welcome to print out. It is vital that every single worshipper at All Saints’ returns a filled-in form, either online or in paper form.
In order to be included in the Electoral Roll of a Church of England parish, you have to fulfil certain simple criteria. These are laid out in detail in the online form. In essence, if you are baptized, consider yourself to be a member of the Church of England, and have worshipped regularly in person at All Saints’ for at least six months, you can be enrolled. People who are formally members of other churches but who worship here can also be enrolled if they wish. You can also be a member of more than one Electoral Roll if you regularly worship at more than one church and fulfil the criteria.
We have received formal advice from the Diocesan Registrar that, at the moment, people who worship with us solely online cannot be made part of the Electoral Roll. Membership requires regular in-person worship or at least an intention to worship regularly in person.
If you have any questions about enrolment, please be in touch with Daniel Fielden, our parish’s Electoral Roll Officer, or with any of the clergy via our parish office (office@asms.uk). I want to thank Daniel on behalf of our whole parish for the considerable amounts of time, energy and commitment he has shown already is making preparations for this revision, and for all the work he regularly undertakes keeping our electoral roll up to date.
At a formal and legal level, membership of a parish’s Electoral Roll bestows a number of rights such as being able to get married in the parish, or being able to elect the PCC and vote at the APCM. More broadly, however, it acts as a good measure of how large a congregation is, and of how healthy parish life in any given church community is.
In a theological sense, therefore, an electoral roll is also the measure of how God has been present in a parish community, calling people to be members of the Body of Christ in a particular place. What may seen like a bureaucratic exercise is actually about naming and recognising each and every person who worships and forms part of the worshipping community at All Saints’. It is to recognise the presence of God’s Holy Spirit in our midst, prompting and empowering our parish to grow and develop in a range of different ways as we seek to respond to God’s call and vocation. It is to proclaim that Christian belief and commitment is not an abstract thing, but is incarnated in a particular location and in a particular community, where Christ is to be found in the midst of his People.
My request to each and every member of the worshipping community of All Saints’ reading this email is simply this: take just two minutes to click on this link, fill in the form, and hit “Submit” to enter your form electronically online. It’s as simple as that.
It is crucial that every single worshipping member of our congregation applies to be a member of our new Electoral Roll so that we have an up to date and accurate picture of who makes up our parish community. I pray that this will be a useful exercise and reveal some of the ways in which our parish is developing and changing as God’s blesses us and calls us to follow him in this place, and in this moment of time.
Fr Peter
Lent Appeal
You can contribute to our Lent appeal here. The proceeds of this year’s fundraising will be split between the work of the Homeless Shelter at the American Church on Tottenham Court Road and the Bishop of London’s Lent Appeal, which this year will support a number of climate justice projects in Mozambique and Angola. You can read more about the Bishop of London’s Lent Appeal here.
Zoom Theology – tomorrow
Our next Zoom Theology seminar will take place on Saturday, 22nd March, 2025, at 3pm GMT (11am New York time), and is entitled, “An Anglo-Catholic Tale of Two Cities.” It will be hosted jointly with our sister parish in New York, St Mary the Virgin Times Square.
Fr Peter and Fr Sammy, the churches’ respective incumbents, will speak about characters from the colourful histories of our two parishes. What can these histories tell us about the future of Anglo-Catholic parishes like All Saints’ and St Mary’s, and what do our parishes’ witness and traditions have to contribute to the life of the Church in our two cities?
You can find the Zoom link for tomorrow’s seminar here.
Stations of the Cross
During Lent, the Stations of the Cross will take place at 12.30 pm on Wednesdays after the noon Low Mass, and at 7.00 pm on Fridays after the evening Low Mass. The service takes around half an hour.
Volunteers needed for Holy Week
Please be in touch with Fr Alan if you would like to volunteer to be a steward on Palm Sunday or to have your feet washed at the evening liturgy on Maundy Thursday.
Stewarding on Palm Sunday involves wearing a “hi vis” vest and helping to organise the procession from Oxford Market to church in such a way that the event is safe and secure for everyone involved. A full briefing is given beforehand.
Holy Hour
Do remember that there is a Holy Hour of silent prayer before the Blessed Sacrament every week on Wednesdays from 5.30 pm until the evening Low Mass at 6.30 pm. Lent is a good opportunity to make time for quiet time with the Lord, and the Holy Hour is a great way of taking time out to be in Christ’s eucharistic presence.
Forthcoming Preachers
Sunday 11th May 2025 – Easter 3
11.00 am High Mass
The Revd Steve Rice,
Rector, St Timothy’s Episcopal Parish, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.
Sunday 18th May 2025 – Easter 5
11.00 am High Mass with Baptism and Confirmation
The Bishop of Fulham
Thursday 29th May 2025 – Ascension Day
11.00 am High Mass
The Revd Dr David Houlding.
Thursday 19th June 2025 – Corpus Christi
6.30 pm High Mass with procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction
The Revd Grant Naylor,
Vicar, St Matthew’s, Carver Street, Sheffield.
Sunday 17th August 2025 – Assumptiontide Procession
6.00 pm Solemn Evensong with Procession of Our Lady and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament
The Revd Philip Corbett,
Vicar, St Silas’, Kentish Town, London.
Sunday 14th September 2025 – Holy Cross Day
11.00 am High Mass
The Revd Dr Michael Bowie,
Vicar, St Peter’s, Eastern Hill, Melbourne, Australia.
Sunday 21st September 2025 – Trinity 14
11.00 am High Mass
The Revd Thomas Crowley,
Rector, Christ Church, St Leonards-on-Sea.
Sunday 2nd November 2025 – All Saints’ Day
11.00 am High Mass
The Ven Luke Miller,
Archdeacon of London.
Monday 3rd November 2025 – All Souls’ Day
6.30 pm High Mass of Requiem
The Rt Revd Lyndsay Urwin, O.G.S.
Please keep our adult confirmation candidates in your prayers. They meet regularly to receive catechetical instruction, and will receive the sacraments of initiation in Eastertide when Bishop Jonathan visits us on Sunday 18th May. Here they were on Wednesday night, beginning a session on the Christian Scriptures and hermeneutics.
Attendance last Sunday
Flowers
For your Prayers
The Friends of All Saints’ Margaret Street:
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, David Mason, Robert Mason, Graham Mather
25th – Judith Mather, The Ven Fr Stephen McClatchie, John McWhinney, Colin Menzies, Amanda Miller
26th – Thomas Moller, Michael Mortensen, Barry Moore, Deacon Christopher Morash, Grace Morgan, Dr John Morrell, Fr. Stephen Morris, Inger Mosbery, Lachlan Moyle, Carol Mundell
27th – Christopher Naylor, Brian Newman, Barry Newsome, Elaine Norman, Richard North, Fr Paul Ockford
28th – Fr Peter and Anna Oesterby-Joergensen, Daniel Oliver, Fr. Barry Orford, Nicholas Page, Samantha Parker, Malcolm Parr, Bhaven Patel, Alma Pearson, Gladys Pearson
29th – Pat Philips, Dr Colin Podmore, Nick and Cecilia Powell, Johann Powell, Susan Prain, Vasileios Psomas, Simon Rainey, Heikki Repo
The sick:
Fr Harry Hodgetts, Elizabeth Lyon, Philip Payne, Fr John Rick III.
The recently departed:
Valerie Snapes.
The faithful departed:
23rd – Geoffrey Constable
24th – Constance Kirk
25th – Belle McCarthy, Beryl Williams, Ralph Ballard, Yvonne Burgess-Jones
26th – Mary Montgomery
27th – John Davies, Amy Burnett-Brown, Maya Dean
28th – John Hosier, Diane Suzans
29th – Georgina Carlton-Williams, Joseph Semlyon
Services this week
Saturday 22nd March – Lent Feria
12pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Confessions
6.30 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday
Sunday 23rd March – THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
8.30 am Low Mass
11 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Evensong and Benediction
Monday 24th March – Lent Feria
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Tuesday 25th March – ANNUNCIATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm High Mass
Wednesday 26th March – Lent Feria
12 noon Low Mass
5.30 Holy Hour
6.30 pm Low Mass
Thursday 27th March – Lent Feria
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Friday 28th March – Lent Feria
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Saturday 29th March – Lent Feria
12pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Confessions
6.30 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday
Sunday 30th March – FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT (Laetare)
8.30 am Low Mass
11 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Evensong and Benediction