All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friends,

Readings at both Eucharist and Evensong this Sunday celebrate God as Creator:

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”   Job 38: 4

“It is he who made the earth by his power,

who established the world by his wisdom,

and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.”  Jeremiah 10: 12

We hear these just days after the appearance of Pope Francis’s encyclical letter on the environment “Laudato Si, on Care of Our Common Home” and the signing of the “Lambeth Declaration on Climate Change 2015” by the Archbishop of Canterbury and other faith leaders, including the Bishop of London.

The pope takes the title of his letter from his namesake St. Francis: from his Canticle of the Sun with its celebration of creation. Anglicans probably know it best as the hymn “All Creatures of our God and King.”   We might think that one who embraced a life of ascetic poverty, as Francis did, would be a despiser of the material world. Yet, as his Canticle shows, he was a lover of creation and its beauty.

This combination is not so strange when we think about it and has something vital to teach us in our present situation.  Even those who are not called to Franciscan poverty still need to take seriously the fact that we can only care for and enjoy the planet we inhabit if we learn to live within our and its means; its capacity to sustain life.  Our call may not be to strive for absolute poverty, but rather to a simplicity of lifestyle; one which considers carefully what we consume because we know that if we and our descendants are to survive on this planet, and if millions of our contemporaries are to have the share of the world’s resources which is their right, we need to live within our and its means.

This is one of the profoundest moral challenges of our age. So it is sad to hear knee-jerk reactions from American presidential candidates; including Catholic ones who seem to have no awareness of their own Church’s well-established teaching on the subject. Even before the encyclical letter was published one said that the pope should stick to religion and leave science to the scientists. He said this without, it seems, the slightest understanding that exactly the same could be said of politicians!  The latest member of the Bush dynasty to run for president commented, even before the letter was published, that religion  “ought to be about making us better as people and less about things that end up getting into the political realm.”  While the first part of this is undeniable, the second merely demonstrates that his conversion to Roman Catholicism seems to have missed out on the Church’s well-established tradition of social teaching.

The Lambeth Declaration calls people of faith to fast and pray and on faith communities in this country to:

• Recognise the urgency of the tasks involved in making the transition to a low carbon economy.
• Develop the spiritual and theological resources that will strengthen us individually and together in our care of the earth, each other and future generations.
• Encourage and pray for those engaged in the intellectual, economic, political and spiritual effort needed to address this crisis.
• Work with our communities and partners in the UK and internationally to mitigate the effects of climate change on the poorest and most vulnerable communities in the world;
• Build on the examples of local and international action to live and to work together sustainably,
• Redouble our efforts to reduce emissions that result from our own institutional and individual activities.

It concludes: “As representatives of the vast numbers of people of faith across the globe we urge our Government to use their influence to achieve a legally-binding commitment at the international Climate Change talks in Paris, and with the continuing programme beyond.  Through our various traditions we bring our prayers for the success of the negotiations.

We call with humility, with a determination enlivened by our faith and with awareness of the need for courage, justice and hope.  We are faced with a huge challenge. But we are hopeful that the necessary changes can be made – for the sake of all who share this world today – and those who will share it tomorrow.”

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Alan Moses
Vicar of All Saints Margaret Street 
Area Dean of Westminster & St Marylebone  

Please pray for those who have asked for our prayers: Asia Bibi. Fr. Bruce Barnett- Cowan, Ella Carroll, James Cary-Elwes, Ian Coull, Paul Curno, Helen Everett, Jonty Gordon, Hugo Gralka, Fr Tony Halton, Tim Harding, Yvonne Harland, Lewis Harvey, Maxwell Hutchinson, Alice Jullien, Molly Leng, Anthea Lepper, Joshua Levy, William Lightening, Christine Loffty, Simon MacGregor, Marjory, Sister Martha (SMNC Tanzania), Hilary Morgan, Margaret O’Brien, David Pearce, Nick Russell, Jock Scott, Fr. Nicholas Stacey, Buzz Stokes, Christine van Dyck, Joy Wright and Marc Young.  

For the recently departed: Eddie Dirks, Robert Sinclair (Priest), Peter Blackwell, Philip Harland (whose funeral will take place at All Saints on a date yet to be agreed), Betty Faulkner, Agnes Hagan and Monica O’Connor.

Remember past priests, benefactors, friends, and all whose year’s mind occurs this week including: Hugh Douglas-Hamilton, Beverley Brentnall, Philip Bennett (former Chorister), Francis Swanton,  Stanley Harland, Percy Mortimer-Smith, Mary Tilley, Alfred Webb (Priest), Henry Ewer (former Churchwarden), Arthur Golightly (Priest), John Allcock, Baby Jean-Paul Myers, Friedemann Golka, Tony Mason (Senior Server), Tony Mason (Senior Server), Tedd McWhinney, Dorothy Jordan, Leslie Moses, Margaret Jervis, Sandra Allan, John Slater (Priest and Assistant Curate All Saints 1970 – 77).                  

WORSHIP NEXT SUNDAY 21 JUNE – THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Preacher: Fr Julian Browning 
Mass in E minor – Bruckner
Faire is the heaven – Harris 

Ten to One Talk after Mass: Theme: The Blessing & Dismissal. The bell will ring beforehand. 

There is a Mission Committee meeting after Mass. 

Sunday Lunch is being cooked by Robin Clutterham. Tickets on sale in the Parish Room before and after Mass – £5.

CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm 
Preacher: The Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses 
Service in G minor – Dyson 
Justorum animÓ• – Stanford 

WORSHIP NEXT SUNDAY 28 JUNE – FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY 
HIGH MASS, 11am
Preacher: The Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses 
Spatzenmesse – Mozart 
O how amiable are thy dwellings – Weelkes 

Sunday Lunch is being cooked by Stuart Voy.  Tickets on sale in the Parish Room before and after Mass – £5.

CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm 
Preacher: Fr Michael Bowie 
Service in G minor – Purcell 
Tu es Petrus – Palestrina 

NOTICES

EVENTS AT ALL SAINTS in JUNE/JULY 
Monday 22 June, 7pm, Meeting of the All Saints’ PCC, following the 6.30pm Mass. 

Wednesday 24 June, 6.45pm, Meeting of the All Saints’ Choir and Music Trust followed by a meeting of the All Saints’ Foundation. 

Tuesday 30 June, 6.30pm – REQUIEM MASS for Fr Clifford Jones, Honorary Assistant Priest at All Saints 1990 – 1994. All welcome. Refreshments will be served afterwards.

Sunday 5 July, 7.15pm (after Benediction) – ORGAN RECITAL – NICHOLAS MANNOUKAS, Dr John Birch Organ Scholar at All Saints since September 2013. Programme: J. S. Bach Prelude and fugue in B minor BWV544; Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten sein BWV641; In dir ist Freude BWV615. J Rheinberger: Intermezzo from Sonata no. 6, op. 119. C M Widor: From Symphonie no. 4, op. 13 iii. Dolce, iv. Scherzo, vi. Finale. Retiring collection to support the Choir and Music at All Saints (suggested donation £4). The All Saints Licensed Club/Bar below the Church will be open after this recital.

Saturday 11 July, Devotions to Our Lady of Walsingham will take place at 11.30 am followed by Low Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at 12 noon.

EVENTS ELSEWHERE in JUNE/JULY 

THE ALBAN PILGRIMAGE, Saturday 20 June 2015 at St. Alban’s Abbey – Celebrate Britain’s First Saint and join in prayer for the witness of Christians faced with persecution today. Please aim to arrive by 10.30am ready for the procession to set off at 11am prompt.

PROGRAMME FOR THE DAY:

11am Pilgrimage Procession with giant carnival puppets begins through the City Centre.

The route begins from St Peter’s Church, St Albans, and continues to the Town Hall and then process to the West End of the Cathedral.

c. 12noon Festival Eucharist following the Procession

Preacher: Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby. The service will be sung by the Abbey Girls Choir

12noon Children’s Worship and Activities – in the Marquee in the Cathedral Grounds.

2pm Orthodox Service and Veneration of the Relic at the Shrine of Saint Alban Organised by the Ecumenical Chaplaincy and the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius – all welcome.

2.30pm Question and Answer Session in the Nave with the Archbishop of Canterbury and Visiting Bishops on the subject of world mission.

3pm Anointing for Healing in the Lady Chapel.

4pm Festival Evensong and Procession to the Shrine

Preacher: Archbishop of Rouen, Mgr Jean-Charles Descubes. The service will be sung by the Cathedral Choir.

The Abbot’s Kitchen will be open from 10am-4.30pm serving breakfasts, lunches, afternoon teas, and a range of snacks and drinks. The Cathedral Shop & Bookstall will be open from 10am-5pm selling a range of pilgrimage merchandise, books, greeting cards, CDs, and much more. As part of the day’s celebrations, we are delighted to be welcoming Bishops and Priests from our link dioceses in the Caribbean. There will be a range of Caribbean-themed stalls in the Cathedral Grounds.

For further information, please call 01727 890245, see the website to register attendance or e-mail: pilgrimage@stalbanscathedral.org

IRAQI CHRISTIANS IN NEED FUNDRAISING RECITALS – Carl Bahoshy (who came to All Saints last year) has been giving fundraising piano & organ recitals over recent weeks at churches and Cathedrals outside London in aid of Iraqi Christians In Need (www.icin.org.uk) which is providing direct financial relief to displaced refugees under the care of the churches in northern Iraq. Please could you let any friends who might attend know of the next two? The venues and times are:-

St. Patrick’s RC Church, Netham Road, Redfield, Bristol BS5 9PF: Saturday, 20 June, 7:30pm (piano & organ recital).
St George’s Hanover Square: Friday, 26 June 2015, 1pm.

Thursday 25 June at 7.30pm – St John the Evangelist, Upper Norwood – Organ Concert: THOMAS TROTTER, International Concert Organist, Birmingham City Organist, and Organist, St Margaret’s, Westminster. Admission free; retiring collection in aid of the Church restoration fund. Light refreshments afterwards.

Wednesday 1 July, 6.30pm, Farm Street Church Hall – THE CURRENT SITUATION IN SYRIA – a Talk by Fr Ziad Hilal SJ followed by a Q&A session. Syrian Jesuit Fr Ziad works with the Jesuit Refugee Service as Director of the St Saviour Centre in Homs where he lived with Fr Francis van der Lugt SJ until his murder in April 2014. All welcome. Entry free – a small donation is requested for refreshments.

ALL SAINTS’ WALSINGHAM CELL DAY PILGRIMAGE – All Saints’ Walsingham Cell will be making a day pilgrimage to Salisbury Cathedral on Saturday 4 July. This is in the tradition of its highly successful pilgrimages in recent years to other cathedral cities. Everybody is welcome. Please contact Ross Buchanan on 020 7221 1312 if you are interested or would like to know more.

Thursday 9 July, 6-30pm – 8pm, St Paul’s Cathedral – LEARNING TO WALK IN THE DARK – Barbara Brown Taylor, Episcopal priest, Professor of Religion at Piedmont College, Georgia and author of best-selling guides to the Christian spiritual life. Free admission/all welcome.

ALL SAINTS RESTORATION PROJECT UPDATE

The long-awaited glass lampshades have now been fitted, so that four of the five pendant lights are fully illuminated, with the fifth due to be completed on 24 June, along with fitting specially made light fittings for the choir stalls (to be attached to the wrought iron grilles). When all are in place we will be able to fine-tune the settings of the overall lighting scheme, although some of this work will have to wait until the darker days of autumn.

As well as the lighting, the switchover of the complete new wiring above and below decks to new electric meters has now taken place. The smoke detection system has been installed and activated.

Funds for the project continue to be raised and the total received at the time of writing is now a splendid £408,750.

As this complex project reaches its conclusion, and the final invoices are received, we have recently had a number of generous gifts that have eliminated the loans of £35,000 that we initially relied upon for the project to get underway. Any more gifts will allow us a small reserve against the final cost of the works. If there are any surplus funds when all bills are paid, these will go towards future restoration projects at All Saints.

We are indebted to all those donors who gave so generously to replace the out-dated electrics and to relight the church so that all the achievements of earlier phases of restoration work are now revealed. Thank you! 

HOW YOU CAN HELP………. please make cheques payable to: 

All Saints Church Restoration Appeal and send them to:  
The Parish Administrator, 7 Margaret Street, London W1W 8JG.
Please indicate where Gift Aid may be applied or send in a completed Gift Aid envelope from in church, as it increases the value of your contribution by 25% at no cost to yourself. Thank you!

ONGOING SUPPORT for HOMELESS PEOPLE through:
MARYLEBONE PROJECT run by the CHURCH ARMY – A Day Centre, Residential and Transitional accommodation provider, re-settlement project and Educational and Training Unit for women. The Emergency Bed Unit – for which we have for some years helped to provide the funds for one of the 4 beds – offers a safe haven and refuge for women escaping domestic violence, financial crisis, sexual exploitation and mental health issues.

Seasonal Appeals – The grand total for collected at All Saints for mission activities in 2014 was £6,463 through the All Saints Festival and Lent Appeals. £3,463 went to the Marylebone Project and a further £3,000 to Us (formerly USPG).
Year Round Support – we also support the Marylebone Resettlement Project with non-perishable food and toiletries or household necessities like cutlery or bed linen/blankets.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed so generously recently – a good number of parcels and bags of food and household essentials have been left in Church or handed in to the Parish Office recently and we shall need to arrange a drop off to the Project to deliver them. Thank you!
Please continue to donate these so we can help more people in need.

Day-to-day Support – we respond to the needs of homeless people who visit the church, providing luncheon vouchers for the West London Day Centre for rough sleepers who apply to the office and allowing a few individuals, who need a place to shelter or sleep during the day, to rest in the back of the church. We have created an information resource for Church Watchers, giving useful advice to homeless and vulnerable people seeking particular support or services. In the face of a rising tide of homelessness in London, please help us fund and support people in need through our Mission project.

Want to help someone sleeping rough but don’t know how?
Call Streetlink on 0300 500 0914 and they will get a visit from the local Street Team who can put them in contact with the services they may need.

FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS OR ASSISTANCE FROM ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET:-
* If you would like to encourage others to take an interest in All Saints/keep up with what is happening here, please forward this email on to them, or to people you would like to invite to services or tell them about our website www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk, which has a full colour 360 virtual tour for viewing the wonderfully restored interior of the Church – see www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk/history/virtualtour – before a visit or if unable to travel.

* If you know of others who would like to receive this correspondence please encourage them to sign up for the email on the All Saints website – see the tab News & Events> Weekly Newsletter.

* If you would like prayers offered at All Saints, please email the Parish Administrator Mrs Dee Prior at: astsmgtst@aol.com. Or make use of the prayer request facility on the website at: www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk/prayer.

If you would like any pastoral assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses: alanmoses111@gmail.com. Or Assistant Priest Fr Michael Bowie: mnrbowie@hotmail.com.

DAILY SERVICES AT ALL SAINTS
On major weekday feasts, High Mass is sung at 6.30pm

SUNDAYS in Church
Low Mass 6.30pm (Saturday), 8am and 5.15pm. Morning Prayer 10.20am
HIGH MASS AND SERMON, 11am and   CHORAL EVENSONG, SERMON and BENEDICTION, 6pm.

MONDAY – FRIDAY
Morning Prayer 7.30am
Low Mass – 8am, 1.10pm and 6.30pm
Evening Prayer 6pm
(Except Bank Holidays – 12 noon Mass only)

SATURDAY
Morning Prayer 7.30am
Low Mass – 12 noon and 6.30pm (First Mass of Sunday)
Evening Prayer 6pm

Confessions
A priest is available for confessions/counsel Monday – Friday from 12.30-1pm and at 5.30pm Monday – Saturday, or by appointment. (Special arrangements apply in Lent and for Holy Week.)

www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk and e-mail: astsmgtst@aol.com.