All Saints Parish Newsletter 20th January 2017
Dear Friend,
On those occasions when we look at the mess the Church is in and feel tempted to despair, a reading of Paul’s Letters to the Corinthians can at last remind us that things have always been like that.
In fact, just as now, they weren’t all bad. In the opening section of the First Letter we heard at Mass last week, Paul gave thanks for the spiritual gifts bestowed on the church in Corinth.
He does then turn his attention to things which are wrong: factions and quarrels. But he does this in the context of his appeal to them: “in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.”
While we can recognize traits we share with those Corinthian Christians, we ought not to take so much comfort from this that we effectively let ourselves off the hook: that’s just the way things are; not much we can do about it.
Paul challenges the Corinthians, not out of pique at feeling slighted in favour other leaders who might be more charismatic than he. He confronts them because he is trying to build something radically new: a community which was made up of Jews and Greeks, rich and poor, slave and free. The bonds of ethnicity, family and social class which normally bound communities together in the ancient world were not there to be called on. The Roman Empire might encompassed all social groups, but ultimately it was held together by force. The churches Paul founded were held together by love. He knew that the factions, quarrels and personality cults and clashes, which are a feature of every human community at some time or other, would undermine that key element of love.
The Church has been struggling ever since to create such communities, with varying degrees of success and failure. On the day when a new American president is inaugurated after a bitterly divisive campaign in which language has become coarser and more extreme and lies shrugged off, some of the failure is on display. It has been said that the most racially segregated hour of the week in the United States is 11 on Sunday morning. We should not feel smug: the Church of England had a less that glorious record when it came to welcoming immigrants, even those who were Christians. The Bishop of London has identified the need for the clergy of this diocese to look like the people of this city: in other words, not all or predominantly white.
We are in the midst of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and this year is the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation which led to the fracturing of Western Christendom. We are still a long way from being “united in the same mind and the same purpose.” However, we should give thanks for the progress which has been made. The ecumenical movement may seem stalled at times, but it has brought us to a place few could have imagined. That change in climate has been the result of much prayer, study and the building of friendships across boundaries: building bridges rather than walls. In May I am going to spend the remaining weeks of my sabbatical at the Anglican Centre in Rome. There I will have the opportunity to explore with others both how progress has been made at a doctrinal level and how flesh is put on these bones at a local level.
Divisions are not just between churches but within them. In our own community, we have spent a good deal of time and energy, discussion and prayer, on how we move forward together given differing opinions on the ordination of women. We should not think that having reached a certain stage, we can all breathe a sigh of relief and think we have nothing more to do. The building and maintenance of a community “united in the same mind and purpose,” is an ongoing task. We may not be able to imagine at a particular point in time how we might make progress, but often it is in engaging with the task that we find that God endows us with the spiritual gifts we need.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Alan Moses
Prebendary 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, Bishop Michael Perham, Anthony O’Connor , Hans Ashbourne, Melanie Stimmler, Bill Rodger, Alix Bainbridge-Spring and David Vincent (Priest).
For the recently departed: Oswald Clark, Alexander Chamberlain, Jill Harrison, Eric Greer, Howard Levett, Jill Saward, Udho Forward, Michael Ovey (Priest), David Galilee (Priest), Jean Sheppard, Yap Kim Kee, Joan Cooper, Stephen Lawrence and Brenda Wheeler.
Remember past priests, benefactors, friends, and all whose year’s mind occurs this week including: Amory Hay, Annie Waggett, Maggie Dibley, Derek Allen (Priest), Ernest Swanton, Edith Laing, Randall Hunter, Kenneth Christie, Ethel Boileau, Hilda Lawson, Watroslav Reith, Noël Campion Frederic Hood (Priest), Oswald Rodger , David Peschek (chorister 1941-45), Walter Vale (Organist 1907 – 1939), Annie Taylor, Alice Savage, Jane Wildash, Annie Benniston, Vera Martin, John Brackley and Barbara Niemyska.
For full service information: www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk.
WORSHIP THIS WEEK:
SUNDAY 22 JANUARY – Epiphany 3
HIGH MASS, 11am
Preacher: Fr Julian Browning
Cantus Missæ – Rheinberger
The Lamb – Tavener
Sunday Lunch is served – tickets £5 on sale from the All Saints Shop in the Parish Room before and again after Mass (subject to availability). The chef is Frances O’Neill who will be cooking something fresh from the market when she shops on Saturday.
EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm
Preacher: The Vicar,
Prebendary Alan Moses
Canticles in F minor – Gray
Te lucis ante terminum – Balfour Gardiner
WORSHIP NEXT WEEK
SUNDAY 29 JANUARY – THE PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE (Candlemas)
CANDLE PROCESSION & HIGH MASS, 11am
Preacher: The Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses
Missa Brevis in F, K 192 – Mozart
When to the temple Mary went – Eccard
EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm
Preacher: Fr Barry Orford
Magnificat Quarti Toni – Guerrero
Hodie beata virgo – Byrd
SUNDAY EVENING ORGAN RECITAL – TIMOTHY BYRAM-WIGFIELD
Sunday 29 January, 7.15pm (after Benediction)
Programme
Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, BWV 564 – J.S.Bach
Ave Maria, Op. 12 – Johannes Brahms
From ‘La Nativité du Seigneur’ (1935): La Vièrge et L’Enfant – Olivier Messiaen
‘Jesus bids us shine’from ‘Six Fantasies on Hymn Tunes’, Op. 72, No. 4 – Kenneth Leighton
Final, from Symphonie No 6, Op. 59 – Louis Vierne
Entry is free, but we invite you to make a retiring donation (recommended £5) to support the Choir and Music at All Saints.
The All Saints Licensed Club/Bar below the Church will be open after
the recital (new 2017 membership subscription now payable: £3).
PARISH NOTICES & NEWS
SCHEDULED BUILDING – HEALTH & SAFETY NOTICE – VICARAGE HALLWAY WORKS ONGOING – For the last ten days work has been underway relaying the flagstones in the doorways and repairing the tiled floor of the vicarage hallway. Progress has been good this week but we have had one or two challenges and this work is likely to continue into w/c 23 January.
Both courtyard and street doorway steps have now been renewed – with the courtyard door continuing to be usable and both doors due open on Sunday morning. The remaining tasks involve wo areas of flooring immediately outside the Oratory – one has got started and been boarded over for safety, so please take care when passing through the hallway in that location.
For now, we would continue to ask you to minimize comings and goings through the vicarage hallway, in the interests of health & safety, as there are trip hazards, dust, workmen and equipment in a small space. If you can avoid taking this route altogether, please do so. If you must use this route (having considered all alternatives), please take great care and observe any restrictions in place to protect you. You may find it helpful to phone the Parish Office on 020 7 636 1788 to check on your particular route if having access at this time is essential. There will be a clear path for Sundays. While we have the specialists on site for this project, we aim to have them look at the repair to the tiled wall in the south choir aisle adjacent to the vestry where the new lighting box was installed as part of the Phase IV Restoration Project. Thank you for your understanding and apologies for any inconvenience related to this essential repair work.
TALK at ALL SAINTS THIS SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2017, 7.15pm – Opus Anglicanum: An Artistic Legacy. Speakers: Anthea Godfrey & Diana Springall. Free entry.
Hand & Lock Embroidery, based on Margaret Street are once again hosting a talk in connection with Opus Anglicanum exhibition at the V&A and have offered free entry to the All Saints’ congregation.The talk takes place in church after the Evening Mass.
The first speaker Anthea Godfrey, is the current Artistic Director of the Embroiderer’s Guild and a highly experienced embroiderer and educator. Previous positions have included. Principal Lecturer at the London College of Fashion, Principal Lecturer and Course Director EDEXCEL, and Principal of The International School of Creative Arts, London. As a lecturer she has been invited to speak in France, Germany, Denmark, Australia,Finland, New Zealand, Japan, and Kenya. Her talk will explore Opus Anglicanum within the context of the artistic movement from which it evolved. The artistic medium will be explored with an emphasis on the ancient technique of Or Nue where gold threads are couched down with coloured silk threads to form patterns or images. Anthea’s talk will highlight the work of Beryl Dean and Margaret Nicholson who were directly influenced by the long history of embroidery as Art.
The second speaker is Textile Artist Diana Springall who has established herself as a beloved British textile artist with works in a host of private and public collections. She works on commissions in her spacious workshop in the Kent countryside and collects and dedicates much of her time to encouraging and collecting the work of other textile artists. Diana will present her talk 20th Century Embroidery (Techniques in the Pursuit of Art) telling the story of British Embroidery and the artists who have used needle and thread to raise the craft to an art form.
SMALL CHOIRS FESTIVAL at ALL SAINTS – Saturday 4 February 2017, Afternoon Rehearsal 2-4.30pm with 5pm Festival Service.
The organist will be Gary Sieling (once Assistant Organist of Peterborough cathedral and now 50% organist and 50% HGV driver) with Fr. John Burniston (St James’, Islington) presiding.
In a thousand vestries around the UK, curly, sepia photographs of proud, serried choristers from the years before the Great War remind us how the great choral tradition in English churches has diminished. Many of these vestries never see a choir these days and in others just a small group of singers gathers Sunday by Sunday; unable to sing most of the repertoire and, almost certainly, with few or no men.
It was from this environment that, in 2004, the first Small Choirs Festival emerged. After a few years, the repertoire from these festivals was made available as downloads on the internet and sparked a surprising amount of interest from English speaking choirs around the world. So Small Choirs International was born, which now has over 360 affiliated choirs from all continents except Antarctica, with 780 pieces of music available for free download with the permission of the copyright owners. The editors, arrangers and composers come from across the UK, USA, Europe, and the Antipodes.
The 2017 Festival repertoire consists of two familiar pieces arranged for SA Men, and some new pieces with flexible requirements. ALL singers who support the ideals of Small Choirs are invited to be part of the festival, whether they belong to a small choir or not and any All Saints’ congregation members who feel that they would like to be supportive are encouraged to sing. Even if you aren’t available to sing, do support the concluding Festival Service from 5-6pm. All welcome.
Further information is available at www.small-choirs.org.uk/feb2017 [with the repertoire to be sung] or from Philip Norman (07939 064 247) pkn@pnms.co.uk. The Small Choirs website: small-choirs.org.uk.
POETRY TEA, Sunday 26 February 3pm (not the Saturday as previously advised), at Pamela’s home. Please bring “Your Favourite Poetry and Prose”. If you would like to come to this event please speak to Pamela or Sandra in the courtyard, or ring Sandra on 020 7637 8456 leaving your name and phone number. Charge £6 in aid of the All Saints’ Restoration Fund.
AFTER the CALL THE MIDWIFE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL, USPG URGES THE BBC TO HIGHLIGHT MODERN MISSION. Article by USPG General Adviser Canon Edgar Ruddock:-
‘I had the privilege of being involved in advising the BBC over some of the details for the Call the Midwife Christmas special, set in a rural hospital clinic in South Africa’s Eastern Cape. Because I had lived and worked there for some years during the 1980s, I was able to connect the BBC team with various people who had worked in clinics during the 1960s. As the screening of the programme approached, I was naturally apprehensive as to how accurately they would manage to capture the context and challenges of a mission hospital during those days. However, overall, I was impressed with the authentic feel the programme managed to convey as the programme moved along.
Inevitably there were a few dramatic assumptions and liberties that had to be taken, but the setting, the conditions, the commitment of the staff, and the quiet determination of the patients all had a very familiar and authentic ring. I thought they did a great and very professional job! The loneliness and isolation of the lead doctor were deeply moving; the sinister backdrop of the ubiquitous apartheid security police had a sadly realistic timbre to it. The willingness of the local staff and work force to do anything to make the clinic and its water supply work, was impressive.
I did find it a shame, however, that all the good things that must have been happening prior to the arrival of the team from London were a bit lost in the narrative – and then the place was suddenly transformed in a matter of a few weeks. Missionary life never was, and certainly isn’t now, anything like that! It would also have been good to see a little more evidence of the local support staff in the clinic than we actually did.A good docu-drama about mission hospitals today would be very instructive of a changing approach to mission, and could also make excellent television!
The heroes and heroines would be local people (or South-to-South Partners), and the transformation would be slow and deliberate – and probably a lot less dramatic. And the involvement of outsiders would be focused around developing local skills and leadership, and encouraging the local church in supporting its own mission hospital and clinics. USPG today supports exactly this very different model of community-based medicine.
I wonder what would happen if local congregations here in Britain and Ireland began to explore how they could help transform their own local hospitals and clinics in these days of stress and pressure on the NHS? We would surely have a lot to learn from our partners in Africa. Having said all this, the witness of the Call the Midwife sisters and midwives, both in London and in South Africa, is a great reminder of the call to sacrificial service that is inherent in our gospel of God’s love being revealed as we become the hands and feet of Christ himself, in the twenty-first century. Bravo BBC!’
** MISSION NEWS**
Men’s clothing especially is needed by the Jesus Centre in Margaret Street and also by the Soup Kitchen at the American International Church, both of whom provide a daily range of services to homeless people. If you have women’s or men’s clothes to give away, please bring to Church and leave at the Parish Office so we can continue to help support our neighbours’ efforts. The Church Army is now also collecting women’s clothes for their Homeless Hostel so all donations can be found a good new home!
The Soup Kitchen specifically calls for: men’s trousers (sizes 32-36) and men’s sturdy/athletic shoes (sizes 9-12 especially) and say ‘we are also beginning to need men’s outerwear of all varieties and we always need rucksacks and duffle-bags to help our guests carry their belongings!’
We have recently received an email of thanks from Miranda Suit, Director of the Soup Kitchen:
Dear Friends, Thank you for your wonderful support throughout 2016. Once again our Christmas Luncheon on 10 December was a very fitting way to round off the year – do have a look at some of the photos on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Soup-Kitchen-at-the-American-International-Church/298663436940986
However it was bittersweet for me, as I will be leaving my job here in the next few months, partly to help look after my new grandson. I have been here for over 10 years and made so many dear friends, so it will be a wrench, but I know the right replacement will be found. With such committed staff and volunteers, a great Board and supporters like you, the vision of the SK is secure and set to grow. We will let you know when the actual date of my departure has been decided. Warm wishes to all of you, Miranda
Miranda Suit, Director of the Soup Kitchen (part-time, usually in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays) says: Please drop me a line if you are planning to drop things off here. As always, many thanks for your support. Soup Kitchen at the American International Church, 79a Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4TD T: 020 7580 2791 www.amchurch.co.uk/soup-kitchen/
ALL SAINTS REGULAR MISSION PROJECTS:-
Marylebone Project – emergency refuge and rehoming project for homeless women.
USPG –work with those experiencing Aids and HIV in Zimbabwe.
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.
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 contributes food and household essentials via the basket in Church or handed in to the Parish Office. 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 allowing them to sleep there in the daytime and signposting them to other agencies who can offer help and donating £1,000 in 2016 towards the Soup Kitchen at the American International Church in Tottenham Court Road this year. We also allow 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 and as the cold weather starts to bite, please help us fund and support people in need through our Mission activities.
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 websitewww.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk, which has a full colour 360 virtual tour for viewing the wonderfully restored interior of the Church – seewww.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk/history/virtual tour – before a visit or if unable to travel.
* If you know of others (near or far) who would like to receive this regular update on what’s happening at All Saints 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@gmail.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
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