All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear friends

News from the Friends of All Saints

I am pleased to report further growth in the new Friends of All Saints’, Margaret Street Scheme. The total number of members has continued to grow over the past few months and now stands at 162.

This means that since the last count of new members which took place in March (128 members), the Friends Scheme has grown by 34 new subscriptions over the past 5 months. Of the total 162 Friends, 53 are in the category of “Benefactor,” generously contributing £120 a year to our parish.

This continued growth represents an annual contribution to the life of All Saints’ of around £9,000. I think this is an enormously significant achievement and I want to thank our Friends and Benefactors for their generosity.

Dom Bernard Clements OSB, our sixth vicar, created the Friends of All Saints in the 1930s. Its purpose is to help a wider community to stay in touch with us and to support the life and mission of All Saints by prayer, companionship and giving. Friends in their turn can draw strength from the church’s daily round of sacraments and prayer and in knowing they have a spiritual home at the heart of London.

Many Friends are regular parishioners of All Saints’. However, Friends also include people who are committed to the life of the church in their home parishes elsewhere but worship at All Saints’ on special occasions or during the working week. They may be former regular worshippers who have moved away or clergy who value their link with All Saints’ as an inspiration in their own ministry. Many Friends live overseas and keep connected to the liturgical life of our parish through our online worship.

I would make a particular appeal to our online worshippers and ask that if you are not already a member of the Friends, to please join. It helps us keep in touch better with you and know where our online worshippers are located.

If you would like to join our Friends, please do so here. More information is available on our parish website about levels of giving and how the Scheme works.

As our PCC starts to look to our finances for the next 12-18 months, it is becoming increasingly clear that next year is going to be a very tight year indeed from a financial point of view. Nearly every single outgoing bill and cost  is increasing with the inflation we are experiencing at this present moment. At the same time, most of our income both in terms of giving and rental revenue is standing still.

Our PCC will be focussing at its meeting in October on ways in which we can balance our budget better in the coming months. I suspect one fruit of that will be a recognition of our need for a significant stewardship campaign next year to encourage people to think about how they support All Saints’ financially.

In the midst of so many complex financial questions, it is very heartening to see the growth of our Friends Scheme and the generosity of its members. You are making a substantial contribution to the life of our parish at a time of great financial pressure and we are very grateful indeed!

Fr Peter

Our new Organ Scholar, Hamish Wagstaff

A childhood spent playing the keys in the worship band for an evangelical church in Sydney seems the most unlikely point of genesis for one starting this Sunday as All Saints’ next Organ Scholar. And yet, opposites sure do attract!

I’m beyond excited to be stepping into this role, to work with and learn from Stephen and Jeremiah, and to play an organ I can only describe as monstrously good fun.

Prior to moving to London a week ago for postgraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music, I was Assistant Organist at ASMS’ sister parish, Christ Church St Laurence, Sydney, Australia. After that, I spent a brief time as Assistant at the Catholic Cathedral in Sydney.

I’ve been humbled by the warm welcome from those I’ve already met in the Parish, and look forward to meeting more people as time goes on. And I’m always keen for recommendations to find the best Eighth Sacrament in London…. coffee.

Hamish Wagstaff

Reflections on Walsingham

We continue a series of reflections on our recent pilgrimage to Walsingham, hearing this week from one of our online worshippers, Margaret Goddard, who lives in Twickenham, and joined us for our pilgrimage weekend:

Covid apart I have been going to Walsingham at least once a year since the early 1970s and have seen it in many moods – the National Pilgrimage, diocesan pilgrimages, parish pilgrimages, the Bible weeks, and as an individual; for the day, for the weekend and for the week. When the covid rules were relaxed Carmela and I went for a couple of days but decided we needed a guided pilgrimage.

I have been worshipping on line during the week at All Saints throughout the pandemic and when I saw the pilgrimage advertised I decided to see if there were any spaces available. There were, and we joined!

It was so good to be back. We were made so welcome – as always by the shrine, and especially by All Saints. As my mobility is limited I could no longer do the walk to the Slipper Chapel, but apart from that we were able to join in with everything – worship and leisure!

Most places change over fifty years and Walsingham is no exception! Each visit you can play the game Spot the Difference! When I first went the only pilgrim accommodation was Stella Maris and many were put up in the village; the refectory was where St Joseph’s is now and resembled a church hall; the food was basic! The shrine church was dark and gloomy; from the roof depended a dusty wooden ship – symbolising the Ark of the Covenant – and the nave was filled with old uncomfortable standard Church chairs. The gardens were just lawn. All the changes over the years have much improved the shrine and its facilities.

But what has never changed is the feeling of peace, of coming home, of an increased awareness of the Presence of God. Long may it prove so! It is indeed a place where the veil between heaven and earth is very thin.

Thank you, fellow pilgrims, for your welcome and friendship. I hope to join you again.

Margaret Goddard

Guest preacher this Sunday

We look forward to welcoming Fr Barry Orford as our preacher at the 11.00 am High Mass on Sunday 4th September. Fr Barry is a good friend of our parish and is well known to many. We look forward to hearing his words.

Online lectures about the Oxford Movement

If you want to know more about the history of the Oxford Movement and the Anglo-Catholic theological tradition within Anglicanism, we recommend you listen to a short series of excellent online lectures recently given through Zoom by Fr Robin Ward for St Thomas’ Fifth Avenue, New York.

They are to be found on the St Thomas’ Youtube Channel here and are well worth a look.

Over three lectures, Fr Robin, the Principal of St Stephen’s House, Oxford,  explores the key figures of the Oxford movement, Newman, Pusey, and Keble. He then looks at how their teaching and example changed first the Church of England, and the Anglican Communion, through ritualism, the revival of the religious life, and parochial mission.

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.

Change to time of evening Masses

A slight change to the times of our evening services will take place in early Autumn. To cut a long story short, we have decided to move all evening Masses from 6.15 pm to 6.30 pm, beginning on Monday 3rd October 2022.

We have been experimenting with celebrating the evening Mass at 6.15 pm for the past 9 months. It has become evident through that time that people would find 6.30 pm a slightly more convenient for a number of reasons. A later start is better for those coming from offices, and it also allows more time for the celebrant at Low Masses to vest after Evening Prayer which takes place at 6.00 pm.

All evening Masses, therefore, will move to 6.30 pm from the beginning of October. This means that the High Masses of the Festival Week will be at 6.30 pm.

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 Byrd’s Second Service and C.V. Stanford’s O, for a closer walk with God.

Prayer list

The sick

Fr. Harry Hodgetts, Elizabeth Lyon, James Shrimpton, David Robin, Gloria Fleming, Sebastian Taite-Ellis, David Craig, Martin Berka, James Rodger, Peter Jewkes, John Kelly

The faithful departed

Kallistos Ware Bp., Robert Chilton

Anniversaries of death

September 3rd – Francesca Morcom, Susan Mason
4th – Harold Matts
5th – Joanne, Guy & Alicia Wace
6th – Anne Adams, Sr. Jean Margaret ASSP
7th – Edith Senior, Maud Burling, Nell Titley
9th – Annie Harrison

The Friends of All Saints’

September 3rd – David Blunden, Colin Bodkin, Fr. Michael Bowie, Eric Broglé, Fr. Julian Browning
4th – Margaret Burgess, Kate Burling, Graham Burns, Adrian Carlton-Oatley, Kate Charles, Stuart Chillingworth
5th – Sandy Christian, Laurence Clark, Roger Clark, Catharine Clarke, Sr. Jane Cledwyn-Davies
6th – David and Mavis Cleggett, Alan Cook, Patrick Cook, Karolyn Cooper, William Cooper Bailey
7th – Tony Coote, Peter Coulson, Steven Cox, Yvonne Craig, Christopher Davies, Robert Davies
8th – Francis Davis, Jack de Gruiter, Laura Denton, Linda Edwards, John Eldridge
9th – Terrence Ellsworth, Sue Enoch, Carolyn Farrar, Sue Feakin, Julia Fielden