All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear friends,

I am pleased to announce a number of parish outings and opportunities for learning over the coming months which, this autumn, will focus on exploring our local neighbourhood in greater depth. All Saints’ is situated in a fascinating part of Fitzrovia. It will be good to learn more about two significant local institutions which are right on our doorstep.

On Thursday 5th October 2023 at 7.00 pm, there will be a parish visit to the Cartoon Museum just around the corner from All Saints’. In addition, on Saturday 28th October at 3.00 pm a group from All Saints’ will visit the London Fo Guang Shan Temple on Margaret Street in order to learn more about our Buddhist neighbours’ community of faith.

Many people at All Saints’ frequently walk past both the Cartoon Museum on Wells Street and the Buddhist Temple opposite All Saints’ and tell me they have never visited either place, and are intrigued to know more about these cultural and religious institutions which fall within our parochial boundaries.

I have been in touch with the Cartoon Museum and the Fo Guang Shan Temple, and they have both said they would be delighted to welcome a group from their neighbours at All Saints’.

Cartoon Museum Visit

On 5th October at 7.00pm there will be a brief introduction and tour of the Museum’s collection offered by a member of their staff, time to see their latest exhibition on Wallace and Gromit, and the evening will finish with a buffet supper back at the Vicarage. The cost of the evening will be £15, which includes entry to the museum, a glass of wine as we look at the exhibition, and supper at the Vicarage.

The Cartoon Museum opened on its present site neighbouring All Saints’ in 2019. The Museum had originally begun on Little Russell Street in 2006 to house the collection of the Cartoon Art Trust but moved to Wells Street when the building it is now housed in was redeveloped. You can read an interesting article from the Guardian concerning its re-opening in 2019 here.

The museum is “dedicated to preserving the best of British cartoons, caricatures, comics and animation, and to establishing a museum with a gallery, archives and innovative exhibitions to make the creativity of cartoon art past and present, accessible to all for the purposes of education, research and enjoyment.”

The Museum contains a fascinating collection of British caricatures and political cartoons ranging extensively from 18th Century to the present, plus an exhibition which changes once or twice a year.

This autumn’s exhibition will look at the history of Wallace and Gromit with a retrospective entitled, “30 Years of the Wrong Trousers,” which I think will be very interesting and great fun at the same time!

Fo Guang Shan Temple Visit

On Saturday 28th October at 3.00 pm, a group from All Saints’ will visit the Fo Guang Shan Temple opposite All Saints’. The Venerable Joe Qian, one of the Buddhist nuns who lives there has kindly spoken to the Abbess of the community. They have agreed to give us a tour of the building and to tell us about their life of faith and the traditions of their community. After our tour, our group will invite our Buddhist neighbours back to the Vicarage for tea together.

The Buddhist community moved into the building at 84 Margaret Street in 1992. Before then, it had been our parish school, and latterly in the 70s the Institute of Christian Studies run by our parish. The building is the work of William Butterfield, dating from 1868-70, about a decade or so after the consecration of All Saints’ church.

The community that now inhabits 84 Margaret Street is a branch of a Taiwanese Buddhist order which practices what is described as “humanistic Buddhism.” This is a modern expression of Buddhism which emerged in China, which seeks to place emphasis on integrating Buddhist practices into every day life, and espouses a shift away from liturgical ritual being for the dead and more for the living.

I was very pleased to be invited to share in the celebrations of the Buddha’s birthday in the Fu Guan Shan Temple a few weeks ago as a guest of honour, and was greatly touched by the spirit of welcome which was shown to me. I hope, through this visit, that we will be able to reciprocate their kindness and learn more about their traditions and theological beliefs.

How to book

In order to book a place on the Cartoon Museum visit and the buffet supper at the Vicarage, please email the parish office (office@asms.uk) and make a payment of £15 to secure your place. This can be done most easily through our parish’s PayPal account, to which Jonathan, our office administrator, will send you a link. There are 20 places in total available on this trip, which will be apportioned on a first come, first served basis.

In order to book a place on the Buddhist Temple visit, please simply email our parish office. There is no charge for this event.

I hope these visits will give us all an opportunity to engage with our local neighbourhood better, and with two significant cultural and religious institutions within our parish boundaries that many of us, possibly, have little knowledge of.

Yours,

Fr Peter

St George’s, Paris

We look forward to welcoming the Friends of St George’s Anglican Church, Paris, to All Saints’ this Monday 26th June. The 6.30 pm Mass on that day will be a Sung Mass celebrated by the Chaplain, Fr Mark Osborne, and will be followed by dinner in our parish room for the Friends of St George’s who have been in contact with their parish office to book a place.

We assure St George’s of our prayers and best wishes, and ask God’s blessing on their life as a parish.

RIP Frank Williams

A Low Mass of Requiem will be celebrated at 12 noon on Monday 26th June 2023 by Fr Peter McGeary on the occasion of the year’s mind of Frank Williams. He was for many years a faithful parishioner and friend of All Saints’, and died on that day last year. Rest eternal grant to him, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon him.

Anglo-Catholic Derby weekend

The famous London Anglo-Catholic Derby weekend is fast approaching. This is the concatenation over three days of several splendid feasts and festivals at S. Silas’, Kentish Town, and Holy Redeemer, Clerkenwell. All parishioners of All Saints’ have been warmly invited to both churches for their celebrations.

S. Silas’, Kentish Town, will be celebrating their patronal festival with First Vespers on the evening of Friday 14th July at 7.30 pm. Vespers is followed by a party in S. Silas’ Presbytery. On S. Silas’ Day itself, Saturday 15th July, there will be a Solemn Mass at 3.00 pm. The Bishop of Fulham will be the preacher. The celebrations this year have a special significance as this will be Fr Rowlands’ last S. Silas’ Day as vicar of the parish.

Holy Redeemer, Clerkenwell, will also celebrate their feast of title on Friday 14th July, with a High Mass and procession of the Blessed Sacrament down Exmouth Market at 7.00 pm. The preacher will be Fr Steven Brookes, Chaplain of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, and Priest-in-Ordinary to His Majesty the King. He is well known to us from the excellent sermon for the feast of the Ascension for us at All Saints’.

The night before the High Mass and procession, on Thursday 13th July, the annual Anglo-Catholic Theology Lecture will take place at Holy Redeemer after First Evensong song of the feast, which begins at 6.30 pm. This year’s lecturer will be Fr Christopher Smith, Vicar of St Alban’s, Holborn, and the lecture will be entitled, “O wonder of wonders: E.L Mascall and the unfolding of Orthodoxy.” If you are unable to attend the lecture in person, it will be live-streamed via the Church Union’s Facebook page.

Feast of the Assumption 2023

Please put in your diaries that we will be keeping the feast of the Assumption this year with two important liturgies over several days in August.

There will be  celebration of Evensong and Benediction with an Assumptiontide procession of Our Lady down Oxford Street on Sunday 13th August at 6.00 pm. The preacher at Evensong will be the Rt Revd Glyn Webster.

On the feast day itself, Tuesday 15th August 2023, there will be a High Mass at 6.30 pm. The preacher will be the Vicar.

Attendance last Sunday

Links for Sunday

Prayer list

The sick

Fr. Harry Hodgetts, Amanda Barrett, Martin Berka, Ray Greenfield, Ruth Butcher, Fr. Peter Strange, Fr. Tim Peskett, James Rodger, Keith Bevan, Ray Oram

Anniversaries of death

June 25th – Tony Mason, Tedd McWhinney
26th – Dorothy Jordan, Leslie Moses, Margaret Jervis, Sandra Allan, Hugo Gralka
27th – John Slater Pr., Barbara Thrift
29th – Edith Taylor, Freida Bailey, Edward Roberts Bp., John Hughes Pr., Peggy Leeman
30th – Harry Lye, William Roberts, Andrew Barker, Gladys Dare
July 1st – Richard Price Pr., Barbara Treadway, Philip Cranmer, Valerie Southcott

June 25th – Ian & Veronica Summers, Ann Tacchi, Sebastian Taite-Ellis, Michael Taylor, James Thomson, Charles Thomson
26th – Jeremy Thorp, Daniel Turner, Christine Vaughn Lillie, Sam Walsh, Christopher Walsh, Christopher Waterhouse
27th – Philip Wayne, Fr. Benjamin Weitzmann, Michael Westcott, James White, Dr. Roger White, Matthew Whittaker
28th – Tim Widdowfield, David Wilcox, T. Bradford Willis, Ian Wilson, Juliet Windham, Philip Wood
29th – Martin Woods, Martin Wooley, David Wright, Fr. John Wylam
30th – The Sisters of All Saints’ Margaret Street
July 1st – Mark Allan, Martin Amherst-Lock, Mary and Stephen Attenborough, Richard Ayling, James Babington Smith, Ruth Baker

Service times this week