All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear friends,

A group of All Saints’ parishioners has just returned from a wonderful few days away in Walsingham on pilgrimage. I can’t begin to say how excellent it was to return to England’s Nazareth after such a long time in which pilgrimage has not been possible because of the pandemic.

Our experience brought home to me just how important it is to take time out of our busy schedules for pilgrimage and retreat. That journey to a holy place makes space for God so that we can encounter him afresh and be encouraged and strengthened in our faith.

I was particularly pleased that we were able to take several people with us this year who had never been before. They all remarked on what a transformative experience it had been for them, how close God felt through our time away, and how they want to return to Walsingham again.

The rediscovery of pilgrimage and the re-establishment of Marian devotion in the Church of England are two of the most beautiful and potent fruits of the Catholic Revival in the Church of England with which both the history of All Saints’ and the Shrine in Walsingham are intimately linked. They are a crucial part of our missional and evangelistic calling, and a wonderful prompt to the Church’s growth in faith, number and in charity.

Knowing we share a communion with all God’s angels and saints shows the Gospel not to be simply about our own personal salvation, or with cerebral assent to propositional truths by individuals. Rather, our sacramental incorporation into Christ at baptism makes us part of the fellowship of the Church which spans time and space.

To assert that God is made man in Jesus also prompts us naturally to want to honour the one in whom the incarnation is brought into being. Rejoicing in Our Lady’s role in the history of salvation is a crucial part of belief in the Incarnation. Asking for the prayer and support of the one who was closest to Christ in his earthly life is a logical consequence of that and shows we share a bond of living communion with her.

I hope over the next twelve months that we can resurrect patterns of pilgrimage and retreat in our parish’s life that can contribute to our growth in faith, but which is also as inclusive as possible in terms of suiting a range of different incomes, availabilities of time and working patterns.

Whilst we were at Walsingham I was able to book accommodation dates for next year, and I outline below the range of visits, pilgrimages, and retreats that we hope to undertake over the next year. This includes for the first time the idea of attending the annual retreat that takes place there in December of each year.

Please have a look at what is on offer, and have a think about how our parish programme of pilgrimage and retreat over the next 12 months can be a help to you in your spiritual life and in the corporate deepening fo our relationship with Christ.

Fr Peter

Our parish group after our last Mass and last visit in the Holy House.

Parish retreat 2022

It has been the tradition of our parish before COVID to organise a retreat each year to a religious house or retreat centre. We can now return this worthwhile practice to our parish’s life, and are planning to take part in a retreat at Walsingham in early December of this year.

A retreat is slightly different from a pilgrimage. It is a time away where we take time to be silent and to reflect on God’s presence in our lives. There is an emphasis on stillness and quiet prayer rather than activity.

Our parish retreat has, in the past, always had a retreat conductor who leads the group in a series of addresses to help our reflection. It has also been the case that the retreat has been taken silently, with the participants agreeing not to speak until the end of their time together.

We have discovered many of the retreat houses we have used in the past have closed as a result of the financial squeeze caused by COVID.  Enquiries have made it clear it won’t be possible to use any of the remaining places of retreat and secure a conductor before the end of the year. As a consequence, we’re going to have a go at something new, and participate in a silent retreat organised by the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in December.

This will take place from Friday 2nd December until Sunday 4th December 2022. A further advantage of the Shrine’s retreat is the fact that it takes place over a weekend rather than during the week, which, I hope, makes it easier for people who work to take part.

The retreat leader this year will be Bishop Roger Jupp. He now works as a parish priest at St Lawrence, Long Eaton, but had spent some time in his earlier ministry as Bishop of Popondota in the Papua New Guinea. The retreat will be silent from Friday evening until Mass on Sunday morning.

It will be good to see what people think of this new way of organising a retreat and whether going away in December is convenient. It will certainly be possible to try other locations or times of the year in 2023 if, on reflection, people would prefer that.

The cost of the retreat, including full board and mini bus from and back to Kings Lynn will be £182. We will travel up to Kings Lynn by train, so each retreatant needs to buy their own train ticket. To book, please email our parish office.

Walsingham Weekend Pilgrimage July 2023

Our weekend pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham will take place next year from Friday 21st July to Monday 26th July 2023.

A weekend pilgrimage involves a series of activities and devotions. Some of these we undertake as a parish group, such as praying the Stations of the Cross together, and making our intercessions in the Holy House. Other things take place together with all the other pilgrims present at the shrine when we’re there, like the large pilgrimage Mass on Saturday evenings, the evening devotion and procession of Our Lady, the sacramental ministries of healing, sprinkling with water from the holy well, and the procession of the Blessed Sacrament on Sunday afternoon.

There is also time for socialising, getting to know people, and pilgrim shopping at the many lovely shops in the village!

We discussed the length of the pilgrimage and were aware that including Monday in the time we are away might not be convenient for those who work. We have decided therefore, to offer two deals: one for those who wish to come home on Sunday night and one for those who want to come back on Monday.

Prices have not been fixed yet, but it looks like the cost of staying from Friday until Monday will be in the region of £270, and staying from Friday until Sunday evening will be around £190. Again, this includes a mini-bus from and back to Kings Lynn, and each pilgrim is responsible for getting their own train ticket from Kings Cross.

Please be in touch with our parish office by email to book a place.

Our joyful group of pilgrims enjoy a well-earned cold drink on our last night in Walsingham!

New look Parish Paper

The first edition of our new look Parish Paper is now out and is hot off the press. This is the new journal of the Friends of All Saints’ Margaret Street, and will come out twice a year from now on. It will be winging its way, as we speak, to all the Friends by post.

Under our newly established Friends scheme, approved by our PCC, the way to receive a copy of the Parish Paper is to subscribe as a member of the Friends of All Saints’.

Do consider joining the Friends of All Saints’, Margaret Street, especially if you do not live in London and want a way of keeping in touch with All Saints’ and supporting our life and ministry. Joining the Friends of All Saints’ is also particularly suitable for our online worshippers.

It costs £25 a year for basic membership and £120 a year for those who wish to subscribe as “benefactors” of All Saints’, Margaret Street. More information about membership, its benefits, and how to join can be found here.

The newly re-established Friends scheme continues to grow, and in the last three months the total number of Friends has risen from 128 to 146 members, of whom 47 are “Benefactors”.

Chelsea Pensioners

We are pleased to announce that a group of Chelsea Pensioner will be joining us for our celebrations of the Assumption on Sunday 14th August!

You may remember we were privileged to have a group of Pensioners with us last year who formed the guard of honour around the statue of Our Lady. They were a magnificent sight as we processed down Oxford Street. Many people commented on how wonderful it was to meet them and chat with them afterwards during our parish party.

On Sunday 14th August there will be a High Mass at 11.00 am, (Music: Missa Brevis in D K194 – Mozart; Assumpta est Maria – Palestrina) and Evensong, Procession down Oxford Street, and Benediction at 6.00 pm (Music: Dyson in D; Tantum Ergo – Henschel).

Our preacher in the evening will be Fr Graeme Rowlands, Vicar of S. Silas’, Kentish Town.

Guest Preachers

Links for Sunday

The links for the livestream and service sheet for Trinity 7 are at the end of this email.

Evensong and Benediction is at 6pm on Sunday. The music includes Gibbons’s Second Service and Gabriel Jackson’s Prayer of King Henry VI.

In our High Mass sermon last Sunday, Fr Julian reflected on the disciples’ request to the Lord, “Teach us to pray.” Watch again here.

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

The sick

Fr Harry Hodgetts, Elizabeth Lyon, James Shrimpton, David Robin, Gloria Fleming, Amanda Barrett, Sebastian Taite-Ellis, Michael Lamprill, David Craig, Martin Berka, Joanna Moses

The faithful departed

José María Romero García

Anniversaries of death

July 30th – George Maryon-Wilson
31st – John Gardner, Francis Woodlock, Margery Duce
August 1st – Winifred Cratherne
2nd – Patrick Watmore, Sara Stevens, Eva Spencer
3rd – Harriet Brownlow (Mother Foundress)
4th – Donald Scott, Mona Morgan
5th – Julian Davies