All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear friends,

As November approaches, I urge you to think about your keeping of our parish’s patronal feast, and to support the liturgies of the festival week.

It is a joy that we are now able to celebrate them with the full solemnity to which our parish is accustomed for the first time in nearly two years. Do put these dates in your diary and come to as many of these beautiful liturgies as you are able.

A patronal festival is a good opportunity to do several things. The first is simply to give thanks. It is important to have junctures in our liturgical year when we can look back and thank God for all he has done for us, and for all that he has enabled us to do in his name. The past eighteen months have been very complex and stressful in so many ways, yet we now find ourself emerging from COVID and able to look forward with renewed hope and aspiration for our parish.

The second thing to do at a patronal festival, therefore, is to entrust the future to God’s keeping and care. So many exciting projects lie ahead of us: the re-opening of our church during the day; the restoration of liturgical patterns with an evening Mass; further development of online worship, teaching and connection with people; study days and opportunities for Christian formation; projects for the renewal of our kitchens and lavatories. In all of this, we will need God’s grace and the prayers of all the saints.

Our festival week will begin with First Evensong and Benediction of All Saints’ Day at 6.00 pm on Sunday 31st October. Our preacher at that Evensong will be the Revd Justin Hutcherson, Vicar of St James’, Clacton-on-Sea (Canticles: Dyson in D; Ashfield, The Fair Chivalry; Caplin, O Salutaris & Tantum ergo).

On All Saints’ Day itself, Monday 1st November, our guest preacher at the 6.00 pm High Mass will be the Revd Philip Barnes, Vicar of St Stephen’s, Gloucester Road. He will be known to many of us as an excellent preacher from his days working at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. The music for the Mass will include Mozart’s wonderful Krönungsmesse and Victoria’s O quam gloriosum.

The next day, All Souls’ Day, Tuesday 2nd November, will see our annual High Mass of Requiem for all the Faithful Departed at 6.00 pm. We are pleased that the Revd Canon Andrew Zihni, Precentor of Southwark Cathedral, will be preaching for us on that occasion, when we will also hear Duruflé’s beautiful setting of the Requiem Mass propers.

Our Festival Sunday, which we will keep on Sunday 7th November, will see a High Mass at 11.00 am at which I will preach. It will be a particular joy to celebrate the sacrament of baptism at that liturgy, as we welcome a new Christian who joins the fellowship of God’s angels and saints through sacramental incorporation into Christ’s Church. On that occasion, we can look forward to Caplin’s Missa Omnium Sanctorum and Whitlock’s Glorious in heaven.

Our feast in celebration of all the saints will finish with Evensong, Te Deum and Benediction on Sunday 7th November at 6.00 pm. The music on that occasion will be splendid with Wood’s Collegium Regale setting of the office’s canticles, and the wonderful Tantum Ergo composed by Henschel.

I ask you to pray for our parish over the next few weeks, for our renewal in the Spirit, and for the gift of courage, joy and confidence to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in the years ahead.

I look forward to seeing you all over the liturgies of our All Saints’ Festival, and pray it will be a period of blessing and grace for our whole parish family.

Fr Peter

Guest preacher this Sunday

I am pleased to welcome the Revd Charlotte Bradley as our guest preacher this Sunday at the High Mass for the 20th Sunday after Trinity.

Until recently, Charlotte was the Chaplain at University College, London, and had also been offering interim interregnum ministry at St Alban’s, Golders Green. She now works for the excellent charity Streetlight UK, which works with sex workers to help them rebuild their lives, and offers support and assistance to those at risk of being trafficked and sexually exploited.

We look forward to hearing what Charlotte has to say to us.   Fr Peter

Pusey House comes to All Saints

All parishioners of All Saints’ are welcome to join the friends and former members of Pusey House at their reunion on Saturday 23rd October 2021 at All Saints’. There will be a High Mass at 3.30 pm to celebrate the life of the House.

The Mass will be sung by former musicians and choral scholars and will be followed by refreshments. Bishop Jonathan will celebrate the Mass and the preacher will be Fr George Westhaver, the Principal of Pusey House.

We are so pleased Pusey House has chosen to hold this event at All Saints and look forward to working together more in the future.

Ravenna Study Day

Friday 29th October 2021, 10.00 am – 4.00 pm

Join us for a study day led by Professor Judith Herrin on the history and theological heritage of the ancient city of Ravenna. Prof Herrin will explore the history of that remarkable city in the early Christian centuries and speak about its significance as one of the first truly “European” city that emerges in the early medieval period from the “Dark” Ages.

Our second speaker will be Fr Anders Bergquist, vicar of St Johns Wood. He will reflect on the interaction between theology, politics and history in the city’s life.

Fr Peter Anthony, our own vicar, will offer a third lecture focussing on the mosaics to be found in a significant church in Ravenna, S. Apollinare in Classe.

The day will begin at 10.00 am and be finished by around 4.00 pm. There is no need to book a ticket for this – simply turn up.

Monthly Requiem

Tomorrow our monthly Requiem Mass will be celebrated: please let Fr Peter have names of those you’d like remembered at that Mass.

Links for Sunday

The link for the Propers for Trinity 20 is at the end of this email.

And click here for the YouTube live stream.

Evensong and Benediction at 6pm on Sunday. This week the music includes Murrill in E, Bullock Give us the wings of faith, and Laloux Benediction hymns. This service is not live-streamed.

Flowers

We are looking for volunteers to help with the flowers in church. If you have a particular talent for flower arranging and would like to help from time to time or on a regular basis, please contact Shawn on 07988 287 663 or shawnwilbe@outlook.com. 

If you would like to make a donation for flowers, please contact Shawn or speak to Chris Self.

Prayer list

Prisoners and captives

Nazanin Zhagari-Ratcliffe, Ismaeil Maghrebinejad, Nasrin Sotoudeh
Maira Shabhaz
Rohingya Christians in Pakistan, Karen Christians in Burma, 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, Fr Michael Gudgeon, Chris and Carole Radley, Fr Harry Hodgetts, Rosemary Orr, Martin Berka, Joan Anna SLG, Sheila Wood, Jennifer Spreckley, Sue Yesnick, Elizabeth Lyon, Rosina Sargon Eskrya, Malcolm Brown, Geoff Vardy, Fr John O’Brien, Max Fernandes, Craig Williams, Ross Dixon, Bernard Holmes, Elaine Bishop, Kathleen McMorran, Sabria Systermans, Peter Hoyle, Bishop Andrew St John, Emily Borland, Hazel Duckett

Those known to us recently departed

Derek Mathews, Muriel Woodhead, David Osborne, Elizabeth Lewis, Barbara Schiefer

Anniversaries of death

17th – Robert Hanvey, Evelyn Vandy, Margaret McKenzie-Edwards
18th – Lilian Geddes, John Williams, Christopher Rawll, Wilfred Bevan
19th – John Hillaby, Colin Wesley, Dolores King
20th –
21st – Dora Bull
22nd –
23rd – Roy Prince

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).