All Saints Margaret Street.

Fr Alan Rimmer writes:

Dear friends,

It was at once a strange and wholesome experience to return last weekend to celebrate and preach for the first time in my home parish. An irony, I know, to leave the West End for the fertile West Lancashire plain in order to preach on the parable of the Sower!

Memories, of course – and absences natural with the passing of time – but happy reunions too – not least with some of those who first instructed me in the Faith. I was struck with gratitude for their ministry, and touched by their own delight in this instance – one among many – of the seed they had sown bearing fruit.

I’m especially glad, then, to announce this week details of our own autumn Mystagogy Program here at All Saints’. This will be an opportunity for newer Christians – and those seeking to re-new their engagement with the Faith – to come together over some classic Christian texts, varying in subject and register. Amidst the abundance of the summer’s cultural offerings (this Friday, July 21st sees the film release both of Oppenheimer and Barbie!) here’s your chance to get your holiday reading material lined up!

There will be five sessions, involving discussion over a simple supper at Number 6, Margaret Street, after the 6.30pm Mass. We will wrap up by 9pm. Unlike other opportunities we offer (our new Zoom Theology schedule will be announced in a few weeks) the expectation is that those who sign up commit to as many of the sessions as possible – we’d like this to involve a sense of momentum and growing together as we study different areas of Christian life, mindful too of our identity as Anglo-Catholics within the Church. In some cases, as detailed below, we will focus on specified chapters, though further reading is encouraged!

As our opening text, on Thursday, September 21st, I’ve chosen the Confessions of St Augustine – hardly in need of an introduction – and a work of which many will have some knowledge. We will focus on Books VIII-XI in Henry Chadwick’s English translation, and I hope this remarkable spiritual autobiography will both be fruitful in itself as well as setting us up for our own journey together over the weeks to come.

On Tuesday, October 3rd, we’ll be looking at something altogether more modern – Sarah Coakley’s The New Asceticism (Bloomsbury 2015, Introduction; chs 3-5). “A new and serious reflection on ascetic theology…forging a new ascetical vision founded in the disciplines of prayer and attention”. Professor Coakley addresses some of the contentious theological debates over sexuality and gender, drawing on sources from the Church Fathers – especially Gregory of Nyssa – to Freud and Jung.

“It may be trivial, but I hope it is illuminated by love – and I think I have made myself as ridiculous as anyone”. Colin Stephenson’s Anglo-Catholic memoir Merrily on High (Canterbury Press) may represent a shift in intensity from our last title – but will hopefully provide us with an entertaining starting point from which to begin thinking about the history of the Oxford Movement within the Church of England. This session will take place on Thursday, October 19th.

On our penultimate evening together, Tuesday, November 7th, we’ll be joined by the Rev’d Dr Jeremy Haselock, who has kindly agreed to introduce us to that seminal work of liturgical scholarship, The Shape of the Liturgy (Dom Gregory Dix, 1945; reprinted by Bloomsbury, 2015). Not without its signs of age, nor its critics, it is nonetheless a wonderfully written and compendious milestone in the field, by this monk of the Anglican Benedictine community of Nashdom. We’re going to focus on chapters 4; 5; 9 and 16.

Evelyn Underhill, poet, novelist and mystic will be the subject of our final session, on Wednesday, November 22nd. I’m delighted that we will be joined by the Rev’d Dr Ayla Lepine, Associate Rector at St James’, Piccadilly, and the Rev’d Dr Barry Orford, both of whom are enthusiastic experts in this sometimes underappreciated Anglican laywoman. Our text is Practical Mysticism, widely available second-hand or online here: https://archive.org/details/PracticalMysticism.

Fr Peter encouraged us on Sunday to scatter God’s seed, that with his grace we might yield an abundant crop – and take that abundance – the abundance of the Gospel life – to the world. Do keep in your prayers this week All Saints’ and all aspects of our witness and growth together here, and especially pray, for a fruitful PCC Away Day next Saturday. Some of us are on pilgrimage to Walsingham this weekend – keep us, too, in your prayers, and be sure of ours in that holy place.

With my own prayers, and love,

Fr Alan

Parish Outings: Autumn 2023

Please be in touch with our parish office to book a place on any of the following parish outings this autumn:

Visit to the London Cartoon Museum
On Thursday 5th October 2023 at 7.00 pm, there will be a parish visit to the London Cartoon Museum, just around the corner from All Saints’. 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.

Parish Cinema trip: The Miracle Club
There will be a parish cinema trip on Saturday 7th October to see a new comedy drama about a pilgrimage to Lourdes starring Maggie Smith called “The Miracle Club.” You can watch the trailer here. Cinema and showing times to be confirmed. There will then be the opportunity to have dinner together after the film in China Town.

Visit to the London Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple
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. They now use the Butterfield building opposite All Saints’ that, in the past, was our parish school, and then in the 70s was the All Saints’ Institute of Christian Studies. After our tour of the temple we will return to the Vicarage for tea together.

Parish lunches

A number of parish lunches will take place on Sundays throughout the late summer and autumn:

On Sunday 27th August, we have been invited by John McWhinney and Paul Weston to share a barbecue in Wapping where their boat is moored at Hermitage Moorings (16 Wapping High Street, E1W 1NG). The barbecue will cost £15 per head (to be paid in cash on the day) and participants are asked to bring a bottle.

There will be a parish lunch on Sunday 10th September at 1.30 pm at Pierre Victoire on Dean Street in honour of Fr Michael Bowie, who will be visiting and preaching that day. Cost: £25 per head for two courses; participants buy their own wine. Places restricted to 20. Please email our parish office to book a place.

Lunch on Sunday 1st October at 1.30 pm will be at Pizza Express on Dean Street and will be in honour of our guest preacher that day, Mthr Katie Hacker-Hughes.  Cost: £25 per head for two courses; participants buy their own wine. Places restricted to 20. Please email our parish office to book a place.

On Sunday 5th November, there will be a further parish lunch. This will be a bring and share buffet in the church to celebrate our All Saints’ Festival Sunday.

Virtual Coffee Hour

There will be three Sunday morning “Virtual Coffee Hours” through the autumn at 12.30 pm on the following Sundays: Sunday 3rd September; Sunday 8th October; Sunday 19th November.

The idea behind this is simple: if you are an online worshipper, grab a cup of coffee and join us online via Zoom for a chat and catch-up directly after the end of the High Mass.

American Zoom Cocktail Hour

There will be an opportunity for our North American online worshippers and Friends to connect and catch up on Sunday 20th August at a time that takes account of the time difference between England and North America. This will be at 10.00 pm GMT, which should be 5.00 pm Eastern Time, and 2.00 pm Pacific Time.

The idea is similar to the other Zoom Coffee hours we hope to organise: if you are an online worshipper, simply join us online where one of our clergy will be present for chat and to hear news from anyone who wishes to share it. The slightly later hour prompted us to think it wouldn’t be too early to come to the computer screen with a cocktail, but please feel free to drink whatever you want!

Join us as we seek to get to know each other better and nurture the links we have with one another across continents.

Young Adults Group

Fr Alan is organising two events for our younger parishioners over the coming weeks.

On Saturday 19th August there will be a hiking trip to Lewes and the South Downs. The walking trip will leave London around 10 am and last most of the day, returning in the early evening. Please be in touch with Fr Alan if you are interested in going.

On Thursday 7th September Fr Alan will host a dinner for our younger parishioners at his home from 7.00 pm. Please email him if you would like to attend.

Attendance last Sunday

Links for Sunday