Weekly Email – Trinity 10 | All Saints Margaret Street All Saints Margaret Street | Weekly Email – Trinity 10

Weekly Email – Trinity 10

Friday 19 August 2022 at 13:45

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Dear friends,

I want to extend a heartfelt word of thanks to everyone who had any hand in Sunday’s celebration of the Assumption. It was a joyful and public proclamation of our Christian faith in the heart of the West End, and a loving expression of our communion with Our Lady and all the saints.

If you weren’t able to be with us, have a look at the online recordings of the liturgies of the weekend here. We are so grateful to Huw Pryce and to all who organised the complex arrangements that allowed us to live stream the liturgy from the street. Thank you, Huw, for all you do to enable us to connect with so many people via the internet, and especially for the thought and attention you devote to special occasions such as our procession last week.

Our band of stewards deserves much praise. Their hard work and attention helped make the evening procession feel safe and enjoyable for all involved. Chris Swift and Nick Gralka deserve particular thanks for organising this aspect of our preparations.

Our servers were wonderful in enabling beautiful liturgies to take place, and we should be particularly grateful to the four individuals who heroically carried the image of Our Lady in the evening. It is, in fact, a very heavy statue once the image is placed in its litter, and I know that in the temperatures we had on Sunday night it cannot have been easy at all to carry.

The choir gave us a wonderful feast of music all weekend. The Mozart Missa Brevis in D in the morning was beautiful, and we really raised the roof with Dyson in D for the evening office. The choir also staunchly kept the singing going through the procession in a wonderful way! A number of people visiting from different choirs and churches in other places spoke to me effusively about how impressed they were with the quality of our music. We are grateful to Stevie Farr, Jeremiah Stevenson and Will Forrest and the whole choir for all they do to provide such excellent music on occasions like these, and through the whole year.

You will have noticed that both the image of Our Lady for the procession and the statue of Our Lady of Margaret Street were beautifully decorated with stunning flowers. We are grateful to Shawn Welby-Cooke for creating these beautiful arrangements. The flowers for Our Lady of Margaret Street were given by Aiden and Ashley Hargreaves-Smith in memory of their mother Valerie and grandmother Irene. The flowers for Our Lady of Walsingham were given in loving memory of Veronica and Alexander. We are indebted to everyone who both donated and arranged these beautiful adornments to our worship.

The party after the procession was quite simply splendid. So many visitors and friends enjoyed our hospitality over the whole weekend. I am so grateful to everyone who offered refreshments and welcome both in the morning and evening. We particularly owe Kate Hodgetts and Chris Self a big thank you for all they do to organise this.

You will have noticed the splendid presence of a group of Chelsea Pensioners at the procession on Sunday night. We were so pleased and grateful to have them with us once more. You can read a report from Chelsea Pensioner Brian Connor below.  I am told an article on our procession will be included in the Chelsea Pensioners’ magazine, “The Tricorne” in its next edition.

It was also a great encouragement to have with members of the Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina with us for the procession helping to escort the image. The Fraternity is an ancient Medieval devotional guild restored by Fr Fynes-Clinton 100 years ago this year which meets at St Magnus the Martyr, London Bridge (the church from which the processional image of Our Lady which we were so kindly lent comes). They wear magnificent blue and yellow collars whenever they meet, and were a splendid sight as we made our way down Oxford Street. We are grateful to them both for the loan of St Magnus’ statue of Our Lady and for their presence in the procession.

I hope our whole All Saints’ family both near and far will be able to take encouragement from our keeping of the Assumption. Let us pray for God’s blessing on our parish community and ask Our Lady to intercede for us all.

Fr Peter

 

Our procession of Our Lady on Sunday evening: we were so pleased to welcome so many visitors and friends for the feast. You can watch the liturgy again here.

 

Reflections on Walsingham

We continue a series of reflections on our recent pilgrimage to Walsingham, hearing this week from Samantha Parker on her experience of pilgrimage to that holy place:

Over the last few years, the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham has become a very special place for me. Pilgrimage there is what made me an Anglo-Catholic.

This year was my third pilgrimage to Walsingham, but my first with a parish. I first visited with a few friends in 2018, one year after I was baptised and confirmed into the Church of England. My experience there changed everything for me. 

That was the first time I’d experienced both the High Mass and Benediction – I had spent most of the services crying because they were so unbelievably beautiful and like nothing I had ever experienced in church before. I felt the love of God more strongly than I thought was possible as I knelt on the stone floor mesmerized at the sight of the priest blessing us with the Blessed Sacrament. 

As somebody who is now exploring a possible vocation to the Religious Life, I appreciated the fairly strict structure of our days while we were there together as a parish. Eating all our meals together in the refectory and attending a variety of services each day provided a sense of community and routine which I am drawn to when visiting Religious Communities. It was also wonderful to have a couple of our online congregation join us and to get to know them!

There are certain aspects of being an Anglo-Catholic that can come with difficulties for me, and I know I’m not alone in that. Despite some differing views, I always find I’m welcome in Walsingham and in church.


I do think if it wasn’t for Walsingham, I wouldn’t have ended up at All Saints’ at all. Being a server here is an incredible privilege and I experience some of the same feelings I first felt there when we serve at our beautiful liturgy each week. I hope others who have yet to visit will feel encouraged to do so!

Sam Parker

 

Walsingham Pilgrimages 2023

The following visits to Walsingham are now available to book through our parish office over the next 12 months.

Walsingham Silent Retreat
Friday 2nd December-Sunday 4th December 2022
Cost: £182 (including full board plus mini-coach from Kings Lynn – retreatants need to book their own train ticket to Kings Lynn).
Retreat leader: Rt Revd Roger Jupp, Vicar of St Lawrence, Long Eaton.
This retreat will be silent from after supper on Friday night to the Parish Mass on Sunday morning.

National Pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham
Monday 29th May 2023
This is a day pilgrimage to Walsingham which takes place on the last Bank Holiday in May each year. We travel together in a coach from Margaret Street, setting off first thing, and return late in the evening of the same day. The pilgrimage includes a large outdoor Mass in the Abbey grounds of Walsingham, with sermon and procession in the afternoon. The cost is usually around £20. Details will be announced closer to the time.

Annual parish weekend pilgrimage to Walsingham
Friday 21st July to Monday 24th July 2023
Cost: £270 Friday to Monday; or £190 Friday to Sunday evening (including full board plus mini-coach from Kings Lynn – pilgrims need to book their own train ticket to Kings Lynn).

A weekend pilgrimage away involving: Pilgrimage Mass at the Shrine Church; evening processions; sacraments of healing; sprinkling at the holy well and finishing with procession of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction.

We are aware that including Monday in the time we are away might not be convenient for those who work. We have decided therefore, to offer two deals: one for those who wish to come home on Sunday night and one for those who want to come back on Monday.

 

In the homily at Sunday night’s procession for the Assumption, Fr Graeme Rowlands urged us to bring our concerns, trials and griefs to Our Lady, who is given to us by God as our mother and queen. It is she who will teach us to care for each other and communicate the Good News of the Gospel to the world. You can watch the sermon again here and read it here

 

Congratulations, Will!

Many congratulations indeed to William Forrest, our organ scholar, who has just sat and passed his ARCO diploma and has been made an Associate of the Royal College of Organists. We are grateful to Will for all he has contributed to the musical life of our parish over the past two years and offer him our warmest felicitations and thanks.

 

Chelsea Pensioners

We were proud and grateful to have present with us on Sunday evening a group of Chelsea Pensioners with their chaplain, Fr Steven Brookes. They formed the guard of honour around the image of Our Lady in our procession. Chelsea Pensioner Brian Connor kindly shares some reflections on the evening with us:

Whilst a couple of the Chelsea Pensioners who joined the Parishioners of All Saints’ for the celebration of the Assumption of Our Lady had come last year, for most of the seven it was a first time.  It was an experience to be remembered for many reasons both from the true religious aspect of the celebration but also the ‘logistical’ elements of the procession.

For myself, a Roman Catholic, the whole service of Evensong and Benediction took me back to my childhood when, as an Altar Server, I would assist our parish priest every Sunday afternoon.

In somewhat warm temperatures, providing a escort guard of honour for the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham presented some challenges both for us as well as the bearers of the statue and the accompanying priests in all their vestments.  With the bearers in their cassocks and cottas and ourselves in our scarlet coats, we enjoyed passing open shop doors with the air-conditioning blowing out to cool us off even for just a few seconds.

Observing the positive reaction of members of the public as the procession passed came as a welcome reminder that, despite so much of the negativity we see in public life now, there is still respect in our communities for events such as our celebration – even drivers of cars slowed up for our passing and showed a tolerance rarely seen on our roads nowadays!

During the refreshments after the formal celebrations had come to an end, there was another experience of chatting to the parishioners both about the celebration but also about All Saints’ Church and your activities as well as telling them about our lives in the Royal Hospital.

This was a truly wonderful experience and we are all so grateful for having been invited to share in such an important feast in the church’s liturgical calendar.  I know, should we be invited again, there will be no hesitation in joining you all.  Thank you all for the experience and we look forward to seeing you at the Royal Hospital on occasion for us to repay your hospitality.

Brian Connor

We thank the Chelsea Pensioners for their presence on Sunday, and for their many years’ service in our country’s armed forces.

 

Online Zoom Theology

Our next online Zoom Theology Seminar will take place on Tuesday 6th September 2022 at 7.00 pm. We will discuss a work of eucharistic and New Testament theology by Brant Pitre entitled, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper.

This seminar, led by Fr Peter Anthony, will explore contemporary biblical scholarship concerning the Eucharist through Brant Pitre’s excellent recent work on the Jewish origins of the Mass.

Brant Pitre uses the Hebrew Scriptures and Jewish tradition to frame the actions of Jesus at the Last Supper, and to provide a fresh look at the Eucharist. By taking us back to the Jewish roots of our faith, the author gives us a powerful lens through which to see anew the bread of the presence, the manna, the Last Supper, and ultimately the meaning of the Eucharist.

Participants are recommended to have read Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist before participating in the seminar. The Zoom link for the evening can be found here.

 

We were so pleased to have present with us members of the Fraternity of Our Lady de Salve Regina on Sunday night at our procession of Our Lady. They wear striking blue and yellow collars whenever they meet. What a magnificent sight they were.

 

Guest Preachers

We are delighted to welcome the following guest preachers to All Saints’ at the High Mass at over the coming months:

Sunday 4th September (Trinity 12), 11.00 am
The Revd Dr Barry Orford

Sunday 23rd October (Trinity 19), 11.00 am
The Revd Clare Dowding, Vicar, St Paul’s, Rossmore Road & Area Dean.

Tuesday 1st November (All Saints’), 6.15 pm
Celebrant and Preacher: The Bishop of Fulham

Wednesday 2nd November (All Souls’), 6.15 pm
The Revd Andreas Wenzel, Vice Principal, St. Stephen’s House, Oxford.

Sunday 6th November (Festival Sunday), 11.00 am
The Revd Nigel Palmer, Assistant Priest, St. Michael’s, Croydon

Sunday 11th December (Advent 3), 11.00 am
The Revd Bruce Batstone, Vicar of Hornsey

Friday 6th January (Epiphany), 6.15 pm
The Revd James Hill, Vicar of St Benet Fink, Tottenham.

 

In our homily at the High Mass for the feast of the Assumption, Fr Peter emphasised how Our Lady’s existence and vocation was rooted in the physical realities of human life. How appropriate is was that her reward should be equally real and corporeal – to be assumed body and soul into heaven. Watch the homily again here and read it here

 

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 is at 6pm on Sunday. The music includes Wise’s Service in F and Greene’s Lord, let me know mine end.

 

We were so pleased to be able to offer welcome and refreshment to those who had taken part in our procession on Sunday night. The evening was very hot, but the drinks afterwards were very cold!

 

Prayer list

The sick

Fr Harry Hodgetts, Elizabeth Lyon, James Shrimpton, David Robin, Gloria Fleming, Amanda Barrett, Sebastian Taite-Ellis, Michael Lamprill, David Craig, Martin Berka, Bruce Ross-Smith, Sara Kennedy, Donald McWhinney, James Rodger, Peter Jewkes

The faithful departed

Alistair Putt, Kallistos Ware

Anniversaries of death

August 20th – William Cargill Pr, Harry Allan
21st – George Jeynes, Leroy Lawes
22nd – Marion Ginger
23rd – Elsie Faithfull, John Hawkins Pr, Patricia Jones, Peter Vickers, Geoffrey Hughes, Lily Caplin
24th – Mary King, David Harris Pr, Linda Clarke
25th – Irene Harford, Elvira Dibley
26th – Robert Corbin Pr

 

Service times this week

Saturday 20th August – St. Bernard
12.00 noon Requiem Mass
6.15 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday

Sunday 21st August – Trinity 10
11.00 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Evensong and Benediction

Monday 22nd August – Our Lady, Mother and Queen
12.00 noon Mass
6.15 pm Mass

Tuesday 23rd August – St. Rose of Lima
12.00 noon Mass
6.15 pm Mass

Wednesday 24th August – St. Bartholomew
12.00 noon Mass
6.15 pm Mass

Thursday 25th August – St. Louis
12.00 noon Mass
6.15 pm Mass

Friday 26th August – St. Ninian
12.00 noon Mass
6.15 pm Mass

Saturday 27th August – St. Monica
12.00 noon Mass
6.15 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday

Sunday 28th August – Trinity 11
11.00 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Evensong and Benediction