All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear friends,

I write to let you know about a number of significant and encouraging changes which have been happening over the past few weeks with regard to the leadership of our serving team.

A new sacristy leadership team of coordinators has been appointed which I am very pleased to announce: Mark Fleming will be our “Rota and Planning Coordinator”; Shawn Welby-Cooke will be our “Liturgical Coordinator”;  and Quentin Williams will be our “Training and Recruitment Coordinator”. I am very grateful to Mark, Shawn and Quentin for agreeing to exercise these important roles.

These developments represent a further step in the process which our PCC has in the past two years repeatedly committed itself to undertaking, of renewing, strengthening, and broadening lay leadership within our parish

An extensive consultation has taken place over the past few months thinking about the future of our serving team in which I have had a one-to-one conversation with each of our many servers to hear their opinions. We have been thinking particularly about how leadership, cooperation, communication and collaboration operate within our serving group, with a view to exploring new models of organisation for the years ahead.

Many different ideas have been voiced, thoughts enunciated, and perspectives expressed as part of that consultation process. A frequently recurring request, however, was that it might be good to experiment with a more collegial and collaborative model of leadership in future, rather than the more hierarchical, directive structure which our sacristy has tended to have in the past with authority vested in one person as Head Server.

Apart from anything else, it was noted that the role of Head Server, as it has been traditionally exercised, involves a considerable investment of time, which not everyone might have. It was felt it might be fairer and more effective to spread that load more widely.

In response to these proposals, I have appointed a triumvirate of three individuals who will share and coordinate the work, planning, and action of our serving team together.

In addition, another frequently voiced desire amongst the servers was a substantial shift towards more online means of communication and organisation. We hope this shift, which we have committed ourselves to, will make the conveying of information more accurate, efficient and reliable.

In time, we hope that each coordinator will have an assistant coordinator. It is envisaged that roles will be served for fixed periods to ensure a wider range of people get to experience leadership within our serving team. The intention is to encourage an ethos in which the gifts of all are valued, and responsibility and leadership are exercised in a more symbiotic and participatory way.

I was singularly impressed by the way in which this new model operated over our celebration of the Assumption. All the liturgies were excellently planned, roles apportioned in good time, and the liturgies themselves were celebrated in a noticeably prayerful, calm, competent and non-anxious way. The organisation of the enormous procession on Sunday 13th August was a real triumph for which we owe our new coordinators and all the servers a huge thank you.

I am sure I speak for our whole parish when I publicly express my thanks to those who serve in our sanctuary for all they do to enable the worship of the whole People of God. Their dedication, attention, and commitment is exemplary, as is the spirit of prayerfulness with which they approach their vocation. I am convinced the life of this crucial group within our parish is in good hands as we hand over to our new “triumvirate” of coordinators.

I ask you to keep our sanctuary team in your prayers as they seek further to serve All Saints’ in that most important of all Christian duties – the worship of Almighty God.

Fr Peter

Online giving from outside the UK

We apologise for the problems which people giving to All Saints’ from outside the UK have been experiencing over the past few weeks. We think we have now sorted out most of the issues which were occurring.

Our PayPal account is the means we usually recommend for payments from outside the UK. You should now be able to make payments through this link. We are aware a number of people have tried to join the Friends of All Saints’ from abroad over the past few weeks and were unable to make payments – we are very sorry about this, and want to let you know that you should now be able to complete your application for the Friends. We are grateful to you for your patience!

In addition to PayPal, we are in the process of establishing a new tax-efficient CAF account through which US tax payers can make donations to All Saints’ and receive the tax benefits of that donation in the United States. Once this is up and running in the next few weeks, we will let you know.

Parish barbecue: Sunday 27th August

This Sunday (27th August), all parishioners are invited by John McWhinney and Paul Weston to share a barbecue lunch from 1.30 pm onwards in Wapping where their boat is moored at Hermitage Moorings (16 Wapping High Street, E1W 1NG). The barbecue will cost £15 per head (to be paid in cash on the day) and participants are asked to bring a bottle.

Zoom Theology

Our online theology seminar by Zoom resumes this autumn, giving those from further afield the opportunity to join in the discussion of a text or subject. These Zoom seminars always take place on Tuesdays at 7.00pm and last for no more than an hour.

Topics for our forthcoming seminars include: the religious thought of Benjamin Disraeli; Eco-Theology and Maximus the Confessor; a refresher session in the doctrinal history of the Early Church; theological murder mysteries; and James Alison, René Girard and the theological concept of the Scapegoat.

For further details, along with the Zoom links, please go to the “Online Zoom Theology” section on the parish website here.

Virtual Coffee Hour

There will be three Sunday morning “Virtual Coffee Hours” through the autumn at 12.30 pm on the following Sundays: Sunday 3rd September (Zoom link here); Sunday 8th October (Zoom link here); Sunday 19th November (Zoom link here).

The idea behind this is simple: if you are an online worshipper, grab a cup of coffee and join us online via Zoom for a chat and catch-up directly after the end of the High Mass.

Parish Outings: Autumn 2023

A range of parish outings are planned for the autumn: a visit to the London Cartoon Museum on Thursday 5th October at 7.00 pm; a parish cinema trip to see the film “The Miracle Club” on Saturday 7th October; and a visit to the London Fo Guang Shan Temple on Saturday 28th October at 3.00 pm.

Full details can be found here. Please be in touch with our parish office to book your place.

Mystagogy Course

Our mystagogy course is an opportunity for newer Christians – and those seeking to re-new their engagement with the Faith – to come together over some classic Christian texts, varying in subject and register.

There will be five sessions through the autumn of 2023, involving discussion over a simple supper at Number 6, Margaret Street, after the 6.30pm Mass. We will wrap up by 9pm. The topics for discussion will include: Augustine’s Confessions; Sarah Coakley’s “The New Asceticism”; the Catholic Revival in the Church of England; Evelyn Underhill; and Dom Gregory Dix’s great work, “The Shape of the Liturgy.”

The expectation is that those who sign up commit to attendance at all the sessions – we’d like this to involve a sense of momentum and growing together as we study different areas of Christian life, mindful too of our identity as Anglo-Catholics within the Church. Full details of dates and topics can be found  here.

Weekend pilgrimage to Walsingham 2024

Friday 19th July to Sunday 21st July 2024

Cost:  £190 Friday pm 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.

There is also an option for pilgrims who wish to stay on until the Monday and return on 22nd July – this costs £280.

To book your place, please be in touch with our parish office.

Attendance last Sunday

Links for Sunday

Prayer list

August 27th – Philip Wayne, Fr. Benjamin Weitzmann, Michael Westcott, James White, Dr. Roger White, Matthew Whittaker
28th – Tim Widdowfield, David Wilcox, T. Bradford Willis, Ian Wilson, Juliet Windham, Philip Wood
29th – Martin Woods, Martin Wooley, David Wright, Fr. John Wylam
30th – The Sisters of All Saints’ Margaret Street
31st – Friends in special need
September 1st – Mark Allan, Martin Amherst-Lock, Mary and Stephen Attenborough, Richard Ayling, James Babington Smith, Ruth Baker
2nd – Stephen Barber, Dr. William Benefield, Fr. Adrian Berry, Charlotte Black, Graeme Bloom, David Blunden, Colin Bodkin