All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear friends,

One of the jewels at the heart of our liturgical life at All Saints’, Margaret Street, is the weekly celebration of Solemn Evensong according to the Book of Common Prayer followed by Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament each Sunday evening at 6.00 pm.

Remarkably few churches offer this liturgy every single Sunday as we do with full choir and ceremonial. We are so lucky that this has been preserved over the years as an important part of our liturgical life and musical patrimony.

Evensong itself stems from a desire of the reformers of the 16th Century to share the treasures of the monastic offices celebrated in monasteries and by the clergy with the whole people of God. Cranmer created two public liturgies that could be celebrated in parish churches out of the monastic offices: Matins, Lauds and Prime became “Mattins”; and Vespers and Compline became “Evensong.”

Although these two offices often came to be celebrated quite simply each day in parochial settings, a more musically elaborate tradition emerged in the Cathedrals and Royal Peculiars of England. This was partly in continuity with the musical traditions of their Medieval choral and monastic foundations, and partly in counter distinction to it, as fresh musical settings for the new vernacular offices emerged. All Saints’, Margaret Street, played a pivotal role in the spread of this cathedral tradition back into parochial life in the 19th Century as the liturgical effects of the Oxford Movement spread.

These two beautiful liturgies of Evensong and Mattins have imprinted themselves strongly on the English consciousness and poetic imagination over the centuries. In the desperate search to prevent war, for example, the first phrase that came to Chamberlain’s mind after the Munich Crisis was one from Evensong, when he announced, “Peace in our time.”

As we emerge into a post-COVID world, I am eager that Evensong on Sunday evenings should remain a well-attended and significant part of our weekly liturgical cycle. With this intention in mind, we are going to have a go over the autumn at raising the profile of our celebration of Evensong and Benediction and increase attendance.

We hope to start live-streaming Evensong more often through the coming autumn and see if people find this a useful thing. We can then review how things went and see if expanding to live-streaming every week could be a good idea in the New Year.

We will also be advertising and reporting on Evensong more deliberately and frequently on our various social media platforms. I would ask for your help in this exercise. If you are on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, please “like,” “share,” and “re-tweet” our material to raise awareness of Evensong at All Saints’ and encourage people to attend.

Most importantly, I would encourage you to have a go at attending Evensong on a Sunday evening if you do not already, and to dip your toe into this wonderful musical tradition. Evensong really is a truly beautiful liturgy and encourages a more contemplative mode of participation than does our High Mass. Invite your friends to come, and let people know that we still preserve the rare tradition at All Saints’ of offering a fully Choral Evensong each week with full choir.

Our Sunday evenings at All Saints’ consist of a Low Mass at 5.15 pm, followed by Evensong and Benediction at 6.00 pm. The parish bar is always open after Evensong for those who wish to have a time of relaxed fellowship with each other. If you occasionally find making Sunday mornings difficult, attending our liturgies on a Sunday evening could be a way of allowing you to make your communion and still participate in the wonderful musical tradition that we preserve at All Saints’.

I pray that this beautiful part of our weekly liturgical offering will be something that more and more people can experience in order to be drawn into the presence of the living God and know his love for them.

Fr Peter

There are still a very small number of places left for this Saturday’s (8th Oct) parish tour of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. This will begin at the Royal Hospital at 10.45 am. We have been asked to meet at London Gate, which is on Royal Hospital Road.

We will be given a tour by one of the Pensioners who visited All Saints’ for the Assumption, and will then be shown the chapel by the Chaplain, Fr Steven Brookes. Our visit will finish with a drink in the Pensioners’ club. Once our tour is over, those who wish to can have lunch together at a local restaurant.

We can only take a maximum of 20 people, so please be in touch with the parish office by email to book your place.

Introducing our Autumn Study Day speaker

We are pleased that Dr Gregory Tucker has agreed to come as the guest speaker at our Autumn Study Day on the Transfiguration on Thursday 20th October. The day begins at 10 am and finishes around 3pm. Read more about our guest speaker:

Dr Gregory Tucker is currently a postdoctoral researcher (DFG-Eigene Stelle) at the Chair for Liturgical Studies, University of Regensburg, Germany, where he is undertaking a three-year project on Greek hymnography for the feast of the Transfiguration.

He read for the degrees of BA in theology at Keble College, Oxford, MSt in patristics at St Stephen’s House, Oxford, MA in theology at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, New York, and DrPhil in Greek philology at Regensburg. His research focuses on the theology and history of Byzantine liturgy (hymnography especially) and contemporary issues in Orthodox theology.

His first book, The Hymnography of the Middle Byzantine Ecclesiastic Rite of Constantinople & Its Festal Theology (Aschendorff, 2022), comprises an edition and English translation of the extant corpus of some 450 hymns of the ancient patriarchal liturgy of the imperial capital, together with a revised history of the sources and commentary on the festal hymns.

Dr Tucker is a founding member and the choir director of a German- and English-speaking Orthodox mission dedicated to Christ the All-Merciful Saviour in Regensburg.

As a teenager, he would visit All Saints’; he remains grateful for the high quality of liturgy and hospitality that he experienced here and looks forward to being back.

All Saints’ people in the Church Times

Several All Saints’ people have been reported on in last week’s Church Times.

A fascinating article appeared in the Church Times about our parish office administrator Jonathan Pease’s work in the East End restoring the regular celebration of Choral Evensong.

Large numbers of people have been attracted to the East London Evensong Choir he organises, both to sing and also to attend the liturgies they offer in a number of East End churches. Jonathan offers reflection on what it is about this traditional liturgy of the Anglican tradition that people find attractive and interesting. Read more about Jonathan’s work and thoughts in the Church Times article here.

In addition, the Media column of the Church Times reported on the extraordinary article that appeared the week before in the Guardian about All Saints’ parishioner Josh Dolphin and his journey of faith from stand-up comedian to believing Christian. The reviewer, Andrew Brown, says of the Guardian article, “But read the whole thing. It really is worth taking the trouble to see how well it is possible to write about religion in the secular press…” You can read the Church Times media review here (Josh and Jack are mentioned in the second half), and the original Guardian article here.

Organ Recitals at All Saints’

Organ recitals (at 3.30 pm on Sunday afternoons) for the year ahead are as follows:

November 20th, 2022: Andrew Dewar (American Cathedral in Paris)
January 29th, 2023: Jeremiah Stephenson (Associate Director of Music)
May 28th, 2023: Stephen Farr (Director of Music)
August 13th, 2023: Hamish Wagstaff (Organ Scholar)

All Saints’ Festival 2022

Monday 31st October 2022 – 6.15 pm
First Evensong and Benediction of All Saints’ Day
Brewer, Evensong Service in D; Leighton, Sequence for All Saints
Followed by a book launch for Fr Peter’s new book, “Patristic Perspectives on Luke’s Transfiguration: interpreting vision.”

Tuesday 1st November 2022 – 6.30 pm
All Saints’ Day High Mass
Haydn, Missa Sancti Nicolai; Victoria, O quam gloriosum
Celebrant and Preacher: The Bishop of Fulham

Wednesday 2nd November 2022 – 6.30 pm
All Souls’ Day High Mass of Requiem
Victoria, Requiem
Preacher: The Revd Andreas Wenzel,
Vice Principal, St Stephen’s House, Oxford.

Sunday 6th November 2022 – 11.00 am
All Saints’ Festival Sunday High Mass
Caplin, Missa Omnium Sanctorum; Ashfield, The Fair Chivalry
Preacher: The Revd Nigel Palmer,
Assistant Priest, St Michael’s Croydon.
Evensong, Te Deum and Benediction (6pm)
Howells, Evensong Service “Collegium Regale”; Bullock, Give us the wings of faith

All Saints’ tide Parish Paper out

The second edition of the recently renewed Parish Parish has just come out. It is hot off the press and will be posted to members of the Friends of All Saints’ in the coming days.

The newly re-established Friends of All Saints’, Margaret Street, continues to expand. Over its first ten months it has now grown to 167 Friends.  66 of those Friends are in the category of “Benefactor,” generously contributing £120 a year to All Saints’.

The purpose of the Friends 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.

The Parish Paper is now the journal of the Friends and is sent by post to all members twice a year. If you want to receive the Parish Paper, join the Friends of All Saints’ here, where information is available about levels of giving and how the Scheme works.

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 Gibbons’s Short Service and Monteverdi’s Cantate Domino.

Fr. Harry Hodgetts, Elizabeth Lyon, James Shrimpton, Gloria Fleming, David Craig, Martin Berka, James Rodger, Amanda Barrett, Michelle McCue, Richard Weed

The faithful departed

David Robin, Sybil Priestnall, Sue Robinson

Anniversaries of death

October 9th – Ann Armstrong, Fred Edwards, Gwendolen Clementson, Philip Oakeshott
10th – Suzette Shores
11th – Mark Carpenter-Garnier Bp., Barbara Schiefer
12th – Guest Blofeld Pr., Lilian Ditcham
13th – David Heffer, Elizabeth Hoare
14th – Vera Dyer
15th – Godfrey Dick
16th – Florence Kelly, Raymond McGrath, Jack Ridley, Richard O’Connor, Gelda James

The Friends of All Saints’

October 9th – Terrence Ellsworth, Sue Enoch, Sue Feakin, Julia Fielden, Nigel Fisher
10th – Stuart Fletcher, Gloria Fleming, Christopher Forman, Anthony Fox, Charlotte Gauthier
11th – Margaret Goddard, Paul Golding, John Goldsmith, Genevieve Gomi, Thomas Greene
12th – Fr. Michael Gudgeon, Sheelagh Gudgeon, Ginger and Del Hall, Monica Joan Hall
13th – Roger Hancock, Jill Hargreaves, Patrick Hartley, Eoghan Healy, Fr. David Hobden
14th – Canon Gordon Holcombe, James and Gwendoline Holdcroft, Fr. Andrew Hollins, Bp. David Hope
15th – Roy Hopkins, Fr. David Hutt, Andrew Jervis, Arthur Johnson, Malcolm Kemp
16th – Alan Kimbrough, Roger Knight, Deirdre Laing, Graham Last, Christopher Laws

Service times this week