All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear friends,

One of the great treasures at the heart of our parish’s liturgical life is the weekly celebration of Solemn Evensong and Benediction on Sunday evenings. It is an absolute joy for me to be able to participate each Sunday in this wonderful choral tradition.  It is such a blessing that every week our keeping of the Day of Resurrection is brought to a conclusion with appropriate solemnity and prayerfulness, rooted in the scriptures and the sacramental presence of the Lord.

I am pleased to announce that, after much thought and preparation, we will soon be expanding the live-streaming of our Sunday liturgies to include Evensong each week. This will begin on Sunday 5th November.

When we first began live-streaming our liturgies during the COVID lockdowns, we rightly focussed on broadcasting the Mass, as we explored the new world of liturgical online worship. This has become a significant and popular part of our parish’s life with around 60 people joining us online most Sundays live for the High Mass. The daily Mass has continued to be live-streamed and 15-20 attend in this way each day, joining with the worship offered at All Saints’ through online participation.

We have for a while, however, received many requests for Evensong to be regularly live-streamed from those who form part of our online community of faith. Upon considering the idea, we realised that to sustain such a change, we would need to train extra volunteers to run the broadcast each week. Over the past few months, we have put our minds to accomplishing just that.

I am very grateful indeed to Huw Pryce, one of our church wardens and director of our live-streaming, for devoting large amounts of time and effort to training up a group of volunteers who will increasingly be able to run the live-streaming when he is not around. We hope these volunteers will help share the load in this important work with Huw, especially on Sunday evenings for the broadcasting of Evensong. We are hugely endebted to Richard Everton, Daniel Fielden, and Paul Weston for volunteering for this important work – many thanks indeed to you all!

Our plan is that from All Saints’ Festival Sunday (5th November) onwards Evensong and Benediction will be live-streamed each Sunday at 6.00 pm. The broadcast will be a little simpler in its mechanics from that offered at the High Mass and will principally consist in a single camera short down the nave. We nonetheless hope this will offer the opportunity for people to participate in this liturgical treasure and to connect with those worshipping in London.

I also hope the live-streaming of Evensong will raise awareness of this tradition in our parish. So few parishes celebrate Evensong with full music each week, and I think it is important for us to remember just how lucky we are to have the opportunity to attend Evensong and Benediction in this way. I also hope raised awareness online of Evensong in our parish might prompt more people to attend in person and to explore this wonderful musical tradition in person.

I look forward to 5th November when this new addition to our live-streaming will begin. I thank those who have made it possible, and I urge you to think about attending Evensong if you haven’t before – whether in person or online – as a way of deepening your relationship with Jesus Christ and encountering him present in the liturgy of the Church.

Yours,

Fr Peter

Parish lunch – this Sunday

A parish lunch will take place after the High Mass this Sunday (1st October) at 1.15 pm at Pizza Express on Dean Street. The cost of the lunch (two courses) will be £25 (to be paid beforehand to the parish office via our Paypal account here) – diners buy their own wine. To book a place, please email Fr Peter directly, but so do PROMPTLY TODAY as he needs to confirm numbers with the restaurant on Saturday.

Guest preacher this Sunday

We look forward to welcoming the Revd Katy Hacker-Hughes as our preacher at the High Mass this Sunday 1st October. Katy is an assistant priest at Marylebone Parish Church and has particular responsibility there for their ministries of wholeness, healing and deliverance.

Mystagogy Course – Tues 3rd October

Our Mystagogy Course meets on Tuesday 3rd October after the 6.30 pm Mass. This session will focus on Sarah Coakley’s book, “The New Asceticism” (Bloomsbury 2015, Introduction; chs 3-5): “A new and serious reflection on ascetic theology…forging a new ascetical vision founded in the disciplines of prayer and attention”. Professor Coakley addresses some of the contentious theological debates over sexuality and gender, drawing on sources from the Church Fathers – especially Gregory of Nyssa – to Freud and Jung.

Next Virtual Coffee Hour – 8th October

Our next virtual coffee hour after the High Mass will take place on Sunday 8th October (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.

Visit to the London Cartoon Museum

On Thursday 5th October at 7.00 pm, there will be a parish visit to the Cartoon Museum, just a round the corner from All Saints’ on Wells Street. The cost of the evening is £15, which includes a glass of wine at the exhibition, and a buffet supper after the museum visit, back at the Vicarage. To book a place, please email the parish office.

Cinema trip – postponed!

Our parish trip to see the new film “Miracle Club” has had to be postponed because of alterations in the release date. It is now clear the film won’t be on at the cinemas until after 13th October. We will now try to organise another date and will communicate this in due course. We apologise for this mix-up.

Starring Maggie Smith, the Miracle Club is set in the 1960s and is centred on a pilgrimage to Lourdes – and the self-discovery and reconciliation the journey brings to the group of Irish women who travel together. You can watch the trailer here.

Next Zoom Theology Seminar

Our next Zoom Theology Seminar will take place on Tuesday, October 10th, 2023. It will be entitled, “Sitting on top of chaos: Dr Megan Dent on the religious life and times of Benjamin Disraeli.”

Historians have long assumed that the Victorian prime minister was indifferent to the various religious and moral changes of his time as he pursued political advancement. Yet in his novels Disraeli expressed a range of ideas about Judaism, Catholicism, and the Church of England. Sybil, or The Two Nations in particular explores the value of orthodoxy within contexts of economic inequality.

In this session, our discussion will be led by Dr Megan Dent, a published historian of this period, who will explore the novel’s treatment of various religious ideas, and how Disraeli drew on Scripture and historical tradition to posit a way forward for a struggling nation. Sybil is available in the Oxford World’s Classics line.

St Matthias’, Colindale

Fr Matthew Duckett, a former parishioners of All Saints’, and good friend of this parish, writes to invite everyone to the fiftieth jubilee of St Matthias’, Colindale. There will be a Festival Mass on Saturday 21st October at 12 noon. The celebrant will be Bishop John Went, the preacher will be Canon Jarel Robinson-Brown, and the Bishop of Fulham will be present in choir as Acting Bishop of Edmonton.

All Saints’ Festival 2023

Tuesday 31st October – Eve of All Saints’ Day
First Solemn Evensong and Benediction of the feast | 6.30 pm
Followed by parish party in church

Wednesday 1st November 2023 – All Saints’ Day
High Mass | 6.30 pm
Preacher: The Revd Richard Bastable,
Vicar, St Luke’s Uxbridge Road, and St Matthew’s, Kensington Olympia.

Tuesday 2nd November 2023 – All Souls’ Day
High Mass of Requiem | 6.30 pm
Preacher: The Revd Dr Barry Orford.

Sunday 5th November – All Saints’ Festival Sunday
High Mass followed by bring and share parish lunch | 11.00 am
Preacher: The Revd Alan Rimmer

Saturday night Vigil Mass

Don’t forget that our keeping of the Lord’s Day begins with a Saturday evening Vigil Mass at 6.30 pm each week.

If you are going to find it difficult to get to church and have to work or travel on Sunday, you can fulfil your obligation to be at Mass with us on Saturday night.

Attendance last Sunday

Links for Sunday

Prayer list