Weekly Email – Trinity 19
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Dear friends,
I am very pleased that the time has finally come to launch our Music Fundraising Campaign 2025-26. This great effort to re-endow our Music and Choir Trust Fund will begin this Sunday, and will be formally launched at the All Saintstide Choir Concert which will take place in a week’s time on Saturday 1st November at 7.00 pm.
It is my great pleasure to share with you in this email plans for a year of events and fundraising activities, all of which will be focussed on increasing the endowment of our Music Trust.
A colour brochure will be handed out at the High Mass this week and next which explains in greater detail the need for the campaign and all our plans for the next twelve months. It will also be posted out to all Friends of All Saints’ and to every parishioner in the coming days.
Please take time to read this document and ponder prayerfully how you might respond to our appeal. Please also make sure all the events which we have planned over the next 12 months are in your diary.
I am so grateful to everyone who has contributed to this exciting programme over the next year – and especially to our Director of Music, Associate Director Music, and all the members of our choir who have given so generously of their time to make a wide range of concerts and events possible. We are hugely grateful.
My request and prayer is quite simply this: reflect on how you might respond as generously as possible to our fundraising efforts, and make sure you come to as many of these events as you can. Support our parish as we seek to ensure the future of our musical and liturgical tradition.
Join me in praying that God will prompt many to be generous in their response to these efforts, and grateful in their thanks to him for the musical heritage we have received at All Saints’.
Fr Peter
You can book your concert tickets here.
All Saints’ Music Appeal 2025-26
All Saintstide Choir Concert – Sat 1st Nov
The calendar of events begins next weekend with a Choir Concert on Saturday 1st November 2025 at 7.00 pm. One of the most important things you can do to make sure our appeal gets off to a good start is to make sure you attend, and bring friends with you. It will be a splendid evening. You can book your tickets (£25 per head) here.
Christmas Carol Concert – Friday 19th Dec
The next event in our fundraising programme will be a Christmas Carol Organ Concert offered by our Associate Director of Music, Jeremiah Stephenson, on Friday 19th December 2025 at 7.00 pm.
It will be a wonderful evening of organ music for the festive season. The programme will include: Dupré, Variations sur un vieux Noël; plus improvisation on a series of well known and loved Christmas carols.
We are so grateful to Jeremiah for offering this wonderful concert in aid of our campaign.
Zoom Theology Seminar – Tuesday 14th April
On Tuesday 14th April 2026 at 7.00 pm there will be the opportunity to think about the contribution All Saints’ has made to English music in an online seminar which will form part of our Zoom Theology series for next year. Dr Serenhedd James will lead us in a discussion examining the musical patrimony of All Saints’ and its influence on Anglo-Catholic liturgical and choral traditions.
American Launch – Friday 20th March 2026
On Friday 20th March 2026 there will be an American Launch event in New York City. A drinks party reception for the American Friends of All Saints’ will take place at the House of the Redeemer, E 95th Street, NYC. There will be a Mass at 6.00 pm followed by a drinks party at 6.30 pm. All American Friends and supporters are invited to join us.
Bach concert – Friday 29th May 2026
On Friday 29th May 2026 at 7.00 pm there will be a concert given by Dr Stephen Farr, our Director of Music on the harpsichord, and Margaret Faultless on the baroque violin. It will be an evening of music by J.S. Bach including the Goldberg Variations, entitled, in Bach’s own words, “Music composed for connoisseurs for the refreshment of their spirits.”
Rachmaninoff Sunday – 7th June 2026
In the summer of 2026, there will be a special Sunday to celebrate All Saints’ links with Sergei Rachmaninoff. On Sunday 7th June 2026, all music at the High Mass and Evensong will be the “All Saints’, Margaret Street” settings inspired by Rachmaninov created by Walter Vale and Eric Arnold. There will be two short lectures after the 11.00 am High Mass given by Professor Iain Quinn and Professor Geoffrey Norris reflecting on Rachmaninoff’s connections with All Saints’ and his Liturgy of St John the Divine.
In addition, Bishop Rowan Williams will be the preacher at the 11.00 am High Mass on that day and will reflect on connections between English music and theology, and Russia.
The Lloyd Webber Connection
On Sunday 4th October 2026, we will celebrate All Saints’ connection to the Lloyd Webber family and especially to William Lloyd Webber, who was our Director of Music in the 1940s. All settings at the High Mass and at Evensong and Benediction will be by William Lloyd Webber, and we will be joined in the evening by his son, Andrew Lloyd Webber, who will speak at a drinks reception after Evensong on his father’s musical legacy.
Gala Fundraising Dinner
On Thursday 29th October 2026 there will be a Gala Fundraising Dinner at the Savile Club, on Brook Street. Tickets for the event will be £100 per head and we are hoping the Revd Richard Coles will be joining us as the after dinner speaker (though this is yet to be confirmed because of the complexities of his diary).
All Saintstide 2026
Our year of fundraising will finish next November with a series of liturgical celebrations to bring this first stage of our campaign to a close. Before she was announced as the next Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop Sarah Mullally agreed to preach at Evensong on Saturday 31st October 2026. We are waiting to hear whether Bishop Sarah can still make this commitment. The celebrant and preacher at the High Mass for All Saints’ Day, Sunday 1st November, will be the Bishop of Fulham.
Our parish’s walking group had a bracing day rambling around Lewes last Saturday. Our group was honoured to be joined by Princess Margaret the Corgi!
Winter homeless shelter
We are looking for volunteers for our parish winter homeless shelter project.
The pattern involves taking the lead in feeding and offering hospitality to some of the homeless of this city at the night shelter hosted at the American Church on the Tottenham Court Road.
We have undertaken to run the shelter on the following nights: Wednesday 26th November 2025; Wednesday 7th January 2026; Wednesday 4th February 2026; and Wednesday 18th March 2026.
If you would like to volunteer, please be in touch with Fr Alan (assistant.priest@asms.uk) and put these dates in your diary.
It was a great joy and honour to welcome Fr Nathan Humphrey, Rector of St Thomas’ Anglican Church, Huron Street, Toronto, as our preacher last Sunday. You can watch the High Mass, including Fr Nathan’s excellent sermon, again here.
Zoom Theology: The Book of Revelation
Our next Zoom theology seminar takes place on 7pm, Tuesday 18th November, 2025, and is focussed on the theology of the Book of the Apocalypse.
Professor Ian Boxall will be leading this session. He is Senior Fellow in New Testament and Professor of Biblical Studies at the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St Louis, Missouri. He has taught previously at the Catholic University of America, and the University of Oxford, from which he received his Doctorate in the Book of Revelation.
He has since published further on the topic, and is considered one of the world’s leading authorities on this complex and enigmatic book of Scripture. Professor Boxall will introduce us to the history and interpretation of Revelation and its place in the canon.
It would be especially useful to have re-read the text itself in preparation for the evening. A number of Professor Boxall’s books are available affordably.
You can see more details about our full Zoom Theology Programme along with the Zoom link here.
Flowers
The flowers by the statue of Our Lady of Margaret Street are given by Antonietta in loving memory of David Robin, on the third anniversary of his death on 12th September.
If you would like to make a donation for flowers or the courtyard garden, please contact Shawn directly or via the office.
Attendance last Sunday
For your prayers
The Friends of All Saints’ Margaret Street:
26th – Thomas Moller, Michael Mortensen, Barry Moore, Deacon Christopher Morash, Grace Morgan, Heather Morgan, Dr John Morrell, Fr Stephen Morris, Inger Mosbery, Lachlan Moyle, Carol Mundell
27th – Christopher Naylor, Brian Newman, Barry Newsome, Letitia Nicholl, Elaine Norman, Richard North, Fr Paul Ockford
28th – Fr Peter and Anna Oesterby-Joergensen, Amanda Oldman, Daniel Oliver, Fr. Barry Orford, Nicholas Page, Samantha Parker, Malcolm Parr, Bhaven Patel, Philip Payne, Alma Pearson, Gladys Pearson
29th – Pat Philips, Dr Colin Podmore, Nick and Cecilia Powell, Susan Prain, Vasileios Psomas, Simon Rainey, Heikki Repo
30th – The Sisters of All Saints
31st – Friends of All Saints’ in need
1st – Carlos Remotti-Breton, Fr Steve Rice, John Rick, Fr Peter Roberts, Hilary Rodger
The sick:
Jean Castledine, Angela Cirillo, Francesco Cirillo, David Craig, Fr Harry Hodgetts, Vivienne Nally, Daniel Oliver, Fr Peter Roberts, James Rodger, Ingrid Slaughter, Juliet Windham
Recently departed
Keelan Shorten
Anniversaries of death:
26th – Gwendoline Freeman, Joseph Harding
28th – Dorothy Gartside, William Lloyd Webber, Phyllis Richards, John Gaskell Pr, David Trendell
29th – Sister Dorothy Hilda
30th – Tharu Tharakan, John Todd
31st – Marian Ross, Frank Leeman, Dilys Thomas;
1st – Bernard Dawson, Jane Pollard, Cecil Mead, Carol Searles, Janet Reid
Services this week
Saturday 25 October – Feria
12pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Confessions
6.30 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday
Sunday 26 October – LAST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
8.30 am Low Mass
11 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Solemn Evensong and Benediction
Monday 27 October – Feria
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Tuesday 28 October – Feria
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Wednesday 29 October – Feria
12 noon Low Mass
5.30 Holy Hour
6.30 pm Low Mass
Thursday 30 October – Feria
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Friday 31 October – Feria
12 noon Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass
Saturday 1 November – Eve of All Saints
12pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Confessions
6.30 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday
Sunday 2 November – ALL SAINTS DAY
8.30 am Low Mass
11 am High Mass
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Solemn Evensong and Benediction