All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear friends,

I am pleased to announce a parish trip to see the superb exhibition being mounted by the National Gallery at the moment on the great Spanish painter Zurbaran.

The visit will take place at 6.00 pm on Friday 31st July, and will be followed by the option of having dinner together at a nearby Pizza Express.

This is the first time an exhibition specially dedicated to Zurbaran has taken place in the UK. It is a remarkable opportunity to learn more about his singularly important contribution to the artistic and theological sensibility of the Spanish Counter-Reformation.

Zurbaran himself was born in Spain in Fuente de Cantos 1598, but made his name in the prosperous city of Seville. He moved there in 1614 to be apprenticed to an artist called Pedro Díaz de Villanueva.

His early big breaks came with a series of extensive contracts for the Dominicans and Mercedarians in Seville who employed him to create a series of images to decorate their churches there. This religious art made his name and launched him on a career which would eventually lead him to Madrid, where he became court painter to Philip IV.

Zurbaran is frequently compared with Caravaggio for his use of the technique of “chiaroscuro” – his images play on intense differences between light and shadow to reveal foregrounded figures, whose inner world is hinted at through stark and austere depiction.

Emotion is communicated not by sweeping movement or the careful composition of interacting figures. Rather, this is accomplished through keen attentiveness to single figures caught in penetrating light who attract and hold the viewer’s attention.

Zurbaran appears rarely to be interested in the internal narrative an image can tell, nor in playing with the perspective of lush backgrounds or compelling landscapes. Rather his interest is often in the viewer’s immediate and intense interaction with isolated figures who enter our awareness, holding our gaze and staring out of darkness. Many of his paintings present figures alone on the canvas, so that our apprehension of them is unimpeded by the complexity of a competing background.

Zurbaran is renowned for his skill is depicting rich clothing and fabric. He was especially good at depicting flowing white clothes, which means his images are full of Carthusians, Dominicans and Mercidarians, all of whose habits are white. The exhibition is a stunning succession of rich folds, cascading silks, deep drapes and the play of light on gold thread and embroidery.

It is interesting to discover in the exhibition how much of his work was produced for an export market – especially to the New World. It is likely this is how a magnificent series of paintings called, “Jacob and his Twelve Sons” ended up in the possession of the Bishops of Durham. Two of these pictures are included in the exhibition on loan from Auckland Castle.

Richard Trevor, Bishop of Durham, acquired the paintings in 1757. He was a political liberal who had been in favour of the Jewish Naturalisation Act of 1753. The act had been repealed as a result of public opposition a year after it had received royal assent. Trevor hung the pictures in his dining room to make a political statement about the need to include people of Jewish descent in British civil society.

The National Gallery has brought together a remarkable collection of some of Zurbaran’s finest works from museums all over the world, but also succeeds in revealing less well known works to us.

One room, for example, breaks away from his usual religious  themes and reveals Zurbaran’s virtuosity at painting still lifes.

Just like his paintings of people, his still life canvases are composed very sparely and sparsely, with just one or two objects drawing our view into an intense experience of close observation.  It is interesting to discover this is a specialism Zurbaran’s son Juan developed before Juan’s untimely death from plague at the age of twenty nine, with beautiful examples of the younger man’s small corpus of extant works on display.

This exhibition is hugely successful at drawing us into the theological confidence, complexity and beauty of the Spanish Counter-Reformation – and particularly its depiction of the saints. Our communion with God’s saints is revealed in a startling and vivid way as we encounter these individuals presented as striking heroes and selfless ascetics.

The viewer is invited to ponder and experience the saints’ spiritual struggles in an intense moment of vision-as-communion. The whole exhibition is, if you like, a sensitive exploration of the theological power of seeing as a spiritual experience and as an empathetic prompt that draws us into the realm of the divine.

We have purchased 20 tickets and they will be sold at £20 each on a first come, first served basis. You can also opt to come for supper after the exhibition at 8.00 pm at the Pizza Express on the Strand, as £40 per head (two courses of a pizza plus a pudding, including drinks). Please book both options here via Eventbrite.

I look forward to a wonderful evening exploring a fascinating artist and the thrilling ways in which he sought to depict the mysteries of our faith afresh for the culture in which he lived.

Fr Peter

Confirmation: Sunday 28th June

Please note that Bishop Jonathan will visit All Saints’ on Sunday 28th June to baptize and confirm our catechumens. There will be a parish lunch after the liturgy. Please be in touch with Kate Hodgetts if you are able to provide a dish of some sort.

Young Adults Group dinner in Chinatown

Our Young Adults Group will be having dinner together in Chinatown on Thursday 2nd July. There will be Mass at 6.30 pm followed by drinks in the Vicarage (or courtyard if the weather is good), and dinner at 8.00 pm at Jinli Restaurant on Newport Place in Chinatown. Cost is £30, which includes all drinks at the restaurant. Sign up via Eventbrite here.

Sick list

We will be undertaking over the next week one of our regular revisions of the parish’s intercession list for those who are sick. Please note that that if a name is sent to the parish office for inclusion in the sick list, it will remain there for two weeks. If you wish a name to remain there longer than that, you must specifically renew its place on the list by email and by agreement with the clergy.

Parish walks

Fr Alan will be leading a number of walks over the coming months, each around 10 miles and involving some climbs. Bring lunch. There will be a short pub stop on each, and the option of an early supper together at the end of the walk. Be in touch with Fr Alan to sign up or ask for details.

Saturday 25th July 2026
Surrey Hills. 10.23 Waterloo Station. Dorking train to Box Hill & Westhumble.

Saturday 22nd August 2026
Kent Downs. 10.34 Charing Cross Station. Ramsgate train to Wye.

Building work

Please note that whilst some extensive electrical work takes place as part of the installation of a new sound system for the church, our building will only be open during service times over the coming couple of months.

All Saints’ will open at 11.45 am for the 12 noon Mass and at 5.45 pm for Evening Prayer and the 6.30 pm Mass. During this period, church welcomers won’t be needed during weekday afternoons.

Friends of St George’s Paris Mass

Please note that on Monday 29th June, there will be a Sung Mass at 6.30 pm for the Friends of St George’s Anglican Church, Paris. All are welcome at the Mass. The liturgy is followed by supper in our courtyard for which you have to book a place.

Flowers

The flowers in front of Our Lady are given by Sandra Hill.

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 and Music Patrons of All Saints’ Margaret Street

22nd – Naomi Slippe, Vaughan Snook, Jonathan Spelman, Louise and Richard Smallwood, Ian Stewart, Robert Stoltz

23rd – Madeleine Storer, Veronica and Ian Summers, Colin Symes, Ann Tacchi, Sebastian Taite-Ellis, Michael Taylor, Kitty Thompson

24th – Dr James Thomson, Charles Thomson, Jeremy Thorp, Michael Traynor, Fr Roger Turner, Dr Christine Vaughn Lillie, Christopher Walsh

25th – Philip Wayne, Fr Benjamin Weitzmann, Mats Wendt, Michael Westcott, Sandra Wheen, All Departed Friends and Benefactors

26th – Matthew Whittaker, Tim Widdowfield, David Wilcox, T. Bradford Willis, Ian Wilson

27th – Fr Michael Witcombe, Martin Woods, Martin Woolley, William Yale, Michael Young, All Friends and Music Patrons

The sick

Kay Benefield, Jean Castledine, Gérard Choley, David Craig, Valerie Mary Foss, Asuncion Gines, Suzanne Goodstein, Paul Faithfull, Fr Harry Hodgetts, Danny Mather, Rebecca Morrison, Daniel Oliver, Ingrid Slaughter, Nanello, Shirley Thompson, Juliet Windham

Recently departed

Judith Craemer, Robert Flanagan, Agatha Hunt

Anniversaries of death

Mass times this week

Monday 22nd June – St Alban
12 pm Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass

Tuesday 23rd June – Feria
12 pm Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass

Wednesday 24th June – BIRTH OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST
12 pm Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass

Thursday 25th June – Feria
12 pm Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass

Friday 26th June – Feria
12 pm Low Mass
6.30 pm Low Mass

Saturday 27th June – Feria
12 pm Monthly Requiem
6.30 pm Vigil Mass of Sunday

Sunday 28th June – STS PETER AND PAUL
8.30 am Low Mass
11 am Pontifical High Mass with Baptism and Confirmation
5.15 pm Low Mass
6.00 pm Solemn Evensong and Benediction