All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friends

Hypocrisy has to be one of the most damaging accusations you can make against anyone nowadays. It is particularly damaging for someone trying to communicate a message. If you are found to be a hypocrite, the words you are trying to get across will be completely obscured by the accusation that you are not practicing what you preach.

In this Sunday’s gospel Jesus himself speaks of the great dangers of hypocrisy. Indeed he accuses those who question him of being hypocrites: “It was of you hypocrites that Isaiah so rightly prophesied in this passage of scripture: This people honours me only with lip-service, while their hearts are far from me.  The worship they offer me is worthless, the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.”

At the heart of what Jesus is criticising is the perennial problem of saying one thing but doing another.  Saying one thing but doing another leads to empty religion: empty gestures; pointless prayer; rules and regulations which have lost their meaning. As Jesus puts it, it amounts to putting aside, “the commandment of God to cling to human traditions.”

One word comes to my mind that sums up the opposite of hypocrisy, and that is the word authentic. Our Christian life together needs to be authentic.  If people see authenticity in our life together, they will find the message we bear more believable.

Gospel life which is authentic is life rooted in love, the sort of love we see God showing for us in Jesus.  This is the love whose presence shows the Holy Spirit is amongst us.

Gospel love is often quite simple and much more practical than people imagine.  We often think being a good Christian is about showing heroic virtue. Sometimes the love God calls us to show is much simpler than that and is rooted in the day to day practicalities of the generosity and kindness that we show to one another and to our neighbour.

So we are reminded this Sunday by Jesus of the destructive power of hypocrisy.  If we are to be a community which authentically lives out the gospel, then we need to be rooted in love – a love that gives of itself and that shows we are willing to serve others as our Lord and Master taught us.

Fr Peter

Online Theology by Zoom

Forgetting and Remembering: does memory make us human?

Tuesday 14th September 2021 – 7.00-8.00 pm

Zoom meeting ID: 884 0442 9227

A few months ago, we announced a programme of online theology seminars organised by All Saints’ to enable us to grow in faith. It is intended that these should be open to anyone who wishes to attend online through Zoom. This means they are open to friends of All Saints’ no matter where they live, and will also be available after the event for people to watch if they were unable to participate live.

Our first session will revolve around the question of what makes us human. As a focus for our discussion, participants will be asked to watch two recently released films, The Father and Supernova, in preparation for this session. Both of these films can currently be rented on Amazon and watched at home.

These two award winning films explore questions to do with dementia and human relationships. How does the Christian tradition respond to the idea of dementia?  What does Jesus teach about what it means to be human? How does memory define who we are? How can we contribute to debate on this topic in a way that values human life? To kind out more and explore this crucial area, join us on Tuesday 14th September at the following Zoom meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88404429227

Links for Sunday

The link for the Propers for Trinity 13 is at the end of this email.

And click here for the YouTube live stream.

Evensong and Benediction is at 6pm. This Sunday the music includes Ireland in F, Walton Set me as a seal, Elgar O salutaris, and Brahms Tantum ergo. This service is not live-streamed.

Flowers

Prayer list

Prisoners and captives

Rohingya Christians in Pakistan, Karen Christians in Burma, and Tigrayan Christians in Ethiopia

The sick

David Fettke, Vallery Tchukov, Sara Vice, Katherine Lee, Lorna Smith, Beth Klausing, Hilary Porter, Bruce Ross-Smith, Benjamin Woolf, James Shrimpton, Tony Rodger, Rachel Pereira, Fr Michael Gudgeon, Chris and Carole Radley, Fr Harry Hodgetts, Rosemary Orr, Martin Berka, Barbara Schiefer, Joan Anna SLG, Poppy Harris-Thompson, Sheila Wood, Jennifer Spreckley, Sue Yesnick, Elizabeth Lyon, Rosina Sargon Eskrya, Malcolm Brown, Tim Knight, Hillary Rodger, Geoff Vardy, Fr John O’Brien, Max Fernandes, Mark Willoughby, Craig Williams, Ross Dixon, Bernard Holmes

Those known to us recently departed

Doris Lyons, Olivier Maire Pr, Benedict Reid OSB, Pr Charles Hoff

Anniversaries of death

29th – Denis Campkin, Joan Saint
30th – John Miller, Amelia Stephens, Tom Chalmers
31st – Peter Davidson, Patricia Williams

SEPTEMBER 1st – Edward Tagoe, Vera Arde-Acquah
2nd – Sophie Garrett, Kathleen Heales, Betty Little
3rd – Francesca Morcom
4th – Harold Matts

Supporting All Saints

Parish Giving Scheme

You can set up a regular donation to All Saints here.

We use the Parish Giving Scheme, which allows contributions to be anonymous and deals with GiftAid, saving our office a lot of time. You can read about how the scheme works here.

Donations for general church purposes

To give by BACS please use the following details, advising the Administrator to collect Gift Aid:

PCC All Saints (Charity no. 1132895)
Sort Code 60-09-15
A/C 04559452

Parish Legacy Policy

We are always delighted to hear from anyone who wants to support us with a donation. Our PCC Legacy Policy encourages people to leave bequests specifically to one of our two related charities to be used for purposes of lasting value (rather than day to day costs):

All Saints Choir & Music Trust (Charity # 802994)

or The All Saints Foundation (Charity # 273390).