All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear friends,

The past week or two have seen a number of changes in personnel at All Saints’. It has been sad to say good-bye to those who are leaving to take up other roles, and we have welcomed a number of new people onto the All Saints’ staff team.

We bade farewell to our organ scholar Hamish Wagstaff in August, and it has been a delight to welcome his successor, Matilda Johnson (or “Tilly” as she likes to be called day to day) over the past few weeks. Tilly has just come from having completed her undergraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music. She his now pursuing post-graduate organ study under Richard Pinel. Tilly grew up in Grantham, Lincolnshire and owes her earliest experiences of church music to being a chorister at St Wulfram’s Church, Grantham. She has already accompanied many liturgies in her first couple of weeks and we are thrilled to have her with us. We assure her of our prayers and support, and are so pleased she has chosen to join us as our new organ scholar.

Tilly’s predecessor as organ scholar, Hamish Wagstaff, has moved to Windsor Castle where he has taken up the role of organ scholar there. In his time with us over the past two years, he has shown himself to be an outstanding church musician of considerable talent, an impressive hard worker, and a sensitive and much respected colleague. We are grateful to him for the love, enthusiasm and commitment he has brought to his work with us; and for the particular insight, knowledge and instinct he has brought to playing within the particular musical traditions we have at All Saints’. Our thanks and prayers accompany Hamish to his new role in Windsor.

In the parish office, Thomas Carlile has just ceased working as our Parish Office Administrator. He is returning to Cambridge to start post-graduate work on a doctorate on the 17th century divine and philosopher Benjamin Whichcote. I want to pay tribute to his remarkable ability and assiduous hard work in our parish office in the time he has been with us. He was been unfailingly able, calm, efficient, reliable and kind. His greatest and most unfathomable virtue must surely be his extraordinary capacity to deal effortlessly with the infuriating foibles of the clergy of All Saints’! He has been a pillar of strength in the sometimes unseen and unnoticed engine room of All Saints’, which is our parish office. We will miss his sense of humour, his warm patience, and his Stakhanovite work ethic, and we wish him well with his future studies.

Thomas’ successor as Parish Office Administrator is Julian Manresa. Many may already know him as he has worshipped at All Saints’ for quite some while. He has just finished graduate study in Cambridge in Philosophy of Religion. He comes originally from Brooklyn in New York, and was brought up in northern New Jersey. After graduating from Yale University in German Literature, he came to England to pursue further related study. He was a choral scholar at Clare College, Cambridge and is a great lover of church music. We are so pleased Julian has chosen to take up the role of Parish Administrator and assure him of our prayers and support in this important task.

The parish office will continue to be staffed in the mornings Monday-Friday and you can speak to Julian either by ringing him in those hours on the parish landline number, or by emailing him at office@asms.uk.

Please join me in welcoming these new faces to our parish team and keep them in your prayers. Give thanks with me for all those whose efforts, gifts and skills make our parish what it is, and who contribute so much to the wellbeing, smooth running, and organisation of our parish.

Fr Peter

Visitors from Berlin

A group of visitors from Berlin will be visiting the Diocese of London over the weekend of 11th-13th October as part of our biennial theological ecumenical conference. This forms part of our diocesan ecumenical partnership with the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg.

Please put Sunday 13th October in your diary as the German delegation will be joining us for Evensong and Benediction. There will be a parish drinks party after Evensong in their honour to which all are invited.

Zoom Theology

Our next Zoom seminar will take place on Saturday 9th November at 7.00 pm and will focus on the theology of Soren Kierkegaard.

We’ll be joined from America by Fr Jeffrey Hanson who will introduce us to aspects of this compelling Danish philosopher’s thought. Fr Hanson is an academic philosopher and has researched and published widely on Kierkegaard.  We are pleased that this seminar is being advertised in both our parish and also in the parish of St Mary the Virgin Times Square. We are hoping it will be attended by parishioners of both churches as a shared teaching event.

In person formation: Pearl with Dr Charlotte Gauthier

Join us for the first of this Autumn’s in-person study opportunities on Wednesday 16th October at 7.00 pm. A light supper will be provided.

Pearl is one of the most important literary survivals of the 14th century: a beautiful meditation on love, loss, death, and grief that still possesses the power to move the modern reader. Together we’ll explore some of the major theological themes and images of Pearl – including grace, sanctification, and the Eucharist – which the anonymous author has drawn largely from the Gospel of Matthew.

Dr Charlotte Gauthier is an historian of church and state in late medieval/early modern England. She is also Assistant Director of Discipleship, overseeing lay training for the Diocese of Southwark.

She recommends the translation by Jane Beal, but this is not essential.

Please register for this event here.

Homeless shelter

All Saints’ will be collaborating this year in the running of the winter homelessness shelter at the American International Church on Tottenham Court Road, which is organised under the aegis of the homelessness charity C4WS.

A number of volunteers are needed to prepare beds, cook, serve and share a meal, staff the shelter over night and then prepare breakfast in the morning. The two dates on which All Saints’ staffs the shelter this winter are: Wednesday 6th-Thursday 7th of November 2024; and Wednesday 5th-Thursday 6th February, 2025.

If you wish to volunteer for this important work, please be in touch with our parish office (office@asms.uk).

‘Adoremus’ Young Adults Pilgrimage

A group from All Saints’ will join the weekend pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our lady of Walsingham aimed at younger Christians who are 18-35 years olds. The weekend begins with supper at 6.30pm on Friday 22nd November and ends with Sprinkling, Benediction and Last Visit at 2.30pm on Sunday 24th November. The cost of the weekend is £95 per head. This covers the cost of accommodation, meals and travel from Kings Lynn. Pilgrims simply have to pay for their train ticket to Kings Lynn. You can sign up here.

We are overdue for sending out names and numbers for this and need a final count as soon as possible, so please sign up!

Advent Silent Retreat

A silent pre-Christmas retreat will take place at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham from Friday 6th – Sunday 8th December 2024. The weekend involves arriving on Friday afternoon, and then keeping silence from Friday evening until Sunday morning. The cost of this pilgrimage is £250. This covers the cost of accommodation, meals and travel from Kings Lynn. Pilgrims simply have to pay for their train ticket to Kings Lynn. To reserve a place, sign up via Eventbrite here.

Don’t forget the new addition to our Sunday schedule each week: a new early Low Mass at 8.30 am.

Attendance last Sunday

Prayer List

The Friends of All Saints’ Margaret Street:

October 6th – Christopher Walsh, Philip Wayne, Fr. Benjamin Weitzmann, Fr. Mats Wendt, Michael Westcott
7th – Matthew Whittaker, Tim Widdowfield, David Wilcox, T. Bradford Willis, Ian A. Wilson, Fr Michael Witcombe
8th – Martin Woods, The Rev’d John Wylam, William Yale, Michael Young
9th – Mark Allan, Martin Amherst-Lock, Robert Austen, Richard Ayling, James Babington Smith, Ruth Baker
10th – Stephen Baldwin, Stephen Barber, Jonathan Beck, Dr William Benefield, William Bonnell
11th – John Bristow, Paul Brough, David Blunden, Fr. Michael Bowie, Dr Graham Burns
12th – Derek Bussey, Katherine Butler, Maureen Cambrey, David Caplowe, Adrian Carlton-Oatley, Timothy Cassady, Kate Charles, Stuart Chillingworth, Robert Chote, Sandy Christian

The sick:

Theresa & Augustina Baier, Stewart Buckingham, Fr John Burniston, David Craig, Tony Hawkins, Fr Stephen Heard, Fr Harry Hodgetts, Arthur Johnson, Katherine Lee, Elizabeth Lyon, James Rodger, Christine Vaughn-Lillie, Christopher Chessun.

The faithful departed:

John Brownsell Pr, John Donvan, Caroline Gibbons, Bruce Ross-Smith, David Weller

Those whose anniversaries of death fall at this time:

6th – Alan Harrison Pr, Patricia Molly Simpson-Coe, Raymond Oram
7th – Sarah Venn, Mabel Moore, Pauline Rolph
8th – Eric Kay, Grace Miller, Emma Titley
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

Service times this week

Wednesday 9th October – Feria
12.00 noon Mass
5.30 pm Holy Hour
6.30 pm Mass

Thursday 10th October – Feria
12.00 noon Mass
6.30 pm Mass

Friday 11th October – Feria
12.00 noon Mass
6.30 pm Mass

Saturday 12th October – Feria
12.00 noon Mass
6.00 pm Confessions
6.30 pm Vigil Mass

Sunday 13th October – TRINITY XX
8.30 am Low Mass
11.00 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Evensong and Benediction