All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friend,

Even though we will be not be celebrating Candlemas until Tuesday, the lectionary gives us Luke’s story of the Presentation in the Temple as the Gospel. It is so beautifully told that it tends to overshadow the other readings; even when one of them is the great passage on love In Chapter 13 of  Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians.

This is passage heard more often at weddings than in the normal round of worship.  So, it is good to consider it in its original context: the life of an early Christian community; and a rather fractious one at that.

I do not object to this passage being taken out of that context and applied to another: to a couple as they make their marriage vows. It has powerful things to say in relation to promises made “for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until death us do part.” Both reading and vows speak wisdom about what love really is and what it entails. 

Paul was not writing a wedding sermon. He was addressing divisions and relationships within a community.  Last Sunday, we heard him speaking about the Church as the body of Christ, the mutual dependence of its members, and the spiritual gifts which it had received from God.

He ended by urging them to “strive for the greater gifts.”  He then speaks of his own behaviour as an example. Speaking in tongues; prophecy; the understanding of mysteries; knowledge, faith to remove mountains, that is power to work miracles; giving up his possessions; handing over his body to be burned. These refer to Paul’s own conduct as an apostle.

But, Paul insists, these are of no value unless they are motivated by love.   That love is something self-giving and sacrificial. It builds up rather than puffs up as mere knowledge does. It is the heart of his apostolic work.

For Paul this love is the supreme reality.  The other gifts of the Spirit are partial and temporary, but love “never ends.” It endures, because it represents that being and nature of God which reaches out to us in Christ.  It expresses itself in a form of life that does not insist on its own way, is not self-centred but self-giving

Immediately after this chapter, Paul will urge the Corinthians to “pursue love” (1 Cor. 14: 1).  Their task is to translate ultimate divine reality into a congregational life-style that fosters communal growth rather than individual agendas or interests.

A bride and groom hearing these words at their wedding have to spend a lifetime learning what they mean in their relationship. A congregation also spends a lifetime learning what it is to love the odd collection of people who have been drawn together by the call of Christ. 

I spent three days last week as one of a group of people from the dioceses of London and Chelmsford in “Shared Conversations” on the vexed issue of “Human Sexuality,” (Church of England-Speak for homosexuality.) We represented the spectrum of divergent views on this issue.  To add to the tension: we met in the aftermath of the meeting of Anglican Primates at Canterbury. 

So, it was just as well that we were not left to flounder or fight it out on our own.  We were guided by members of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Ministry of Reconciliation team, and guidelines which helped us respect fellow-participants with different views. We had to listen attentively and respectfully to what others had to say, and they to us. This was salutary on an issue on which debate often seems more like the lobbing of grenades. Some of the participants in the debate now know each other as real people rather than just representatives of viewpoints they reject.

We did not solve the problem, but Paul had to write again to the Corinthians, so we need to pray for the patience and kindness of which he speaks.

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, John Bailey, Fr Allan Buick, Vivien Caplow, James Cary-Elwes, Ian Coull, Dennis Davis, Elizabeth Day, Mark Dougly, Kate Down, Maureen Duggan, Alban Fellows, David Fettke, Jonty Gordon, Adrian Gunning, Fr Alan Gyle, Ghislain Hamelin, Lewis Harvey, Myrtle Hughes, Pat Hunt, David Jewkes, Alice Jullien,  Julie Knight, Andrew Laird, Tom Leader, Christine Loffty, Fr Frank Marriott, Miriam Nelson, David Pearce, Canon John Rees, Jock Scott, Patricia Searle, Stella and Helen Skinner, Rose Stephens, Christine van Dyck,  Juliet Windham and Joy Wright.   

For the recently departed:  Peter Burbidge, Edwin Meek, Robert McWatt, Roger Radford, Hilary Morgan, Kate Thomas, Frederick Porter, Brother Damian SSF and Norman Newby.

Remember past priests, benefactors, friends, and all whose year’s mind occurs this week including: Leonard Forsyth, Reginald Oxley (Bar Steward), Jean Phillips, Sarah Hutchinson, John Rose, John Pollard, Florence White, Pamela Powis, Alfred Buhagiar, Sydney Barradell, Cecilia Gamble, Agnes Theobald, VeraAspinall, Marjorie Hague (PCC member), Dorothy Collins, Philip Morrell, George Venn, Sarah Hudson, Iris Harrison, Norman Holden, Ron Pethers and Donald Scott.

For full service information: www.allsaintsmargaretstreet.org.uk.

WORSHIP THIS SUNDAY 31 JANUARY – Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
HIGH MASS, 11am
Preacher: Fr Barry Orford
Missa Brevior – Sherwood
Dies sanctificatus – Byrd

There is Sunday lunch service this week and Chris Self and Jan Fielden are the chefs. The menu is Carbonnade of Beef followed by Chocolate Pots and coffee. Tickets £5 on sale in the Parish Shop in the Parish Room before and after Mass (subject to availability).

CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm
Preacher: Fr Julian Browning 
Service in G (upper voices) – Sumsion 
O viridissima virga – Hildegaard of Bingen

TUESDAY 2 FEBRUARY Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Candlemas) PROCESSION & HIGH MASS at 6.30pm
Preacher: The Venerable John Hawkins, Archdeacon of Hampstead
Missa super Sancta Maria – Händl
When to the temple Mary went – Eccard

WORSHIP NEXT SUNDAY 7 FEBRUARY – SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE LENT 
Preacher: The Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses 
Mass in G – Schubert 
Nunc Dimittis – Holst

There is Sunday Lunch service – the chefs are Paul Weston and John McWhinney.  

CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm 
Preacher: Fr Julian Browning 
Service in G – Howells 
Bring us, O Lord God – Harris 

PARISH NOTICES

ALL SAINTS LENT APPEAL 2016
As part of Lenten almsgiving, collections for our Appeal will be shared equally between the following three charities:  

1. Bishop of London’s Lent Appeal 2016
   Fundraising for two reputable charities active among the beleaguered Christian communities in Iraq and Syria:
   Open Doors – providing emergency food supplies and hygiene kits to 10,000 families every month in Syria and
   Aid to the Church in Need – focusing in Iraq on urgent needs for housing, medicine and education to allow the Church to maintain its Christian presence and witness Jesus Christ.
2. Us (formerly USPG)
   Support for the church in Zimbabwe working with those affected by HIV and AIDS and providing local clergy and lay leaders with skills and training to undertake that work.
3. The Marylebone Project – our regular year-round mission project, run by the Church Army – empowering homeless women into independent living. Our money goes towards the emergency bed unit, providing urgent accommodation for women escaping domestic violence, financial crisis, sexual exploitation and mental health issues.

In 2015 we raised a total of £3,900 (including applicable Gift Aid).  Please give generously this year (gift aiding when you are a UK tax payer) so we can try and raise over £4,000 in 2016. Cheques should be made payable to: Parochial Church All Saints.

Please see the noticeboard in Church where other events may be advertised as space is limited in the Newsletter.

UPCOMING SERVICES & EVENTS – at ALL SAINTS

SMALL CHOIRS FESTIVAL 2016 
Saturday 6 February, 2 – 6pm 
Small Choirs was set up in 2004 to support church choirs with few or no men by organising choral festivals with a repertoire that such choirs could manage in their own churches without further support, and also by providing suitable music for such choirs in downloadable form on the internet. The website now has over 700 pieces of music suitable for such choirs and hundreds of choirs around the globe (from every continent except Antarctica) are using the site and receiving the regular newsletter and updates.

The 2016 festival is being held in All Saints. After an afternoon of rehearsing, a Festival Service will be held at 5pm, with Fr. John Pritchard presiding, at which the festival pieces will be sung within a framework of well-known hymns and readings.

The Small Choirs Festivals are ecumenical in nature and, in previous years, church choirs from all the major denominations have been represented. One of the special features of the festivals is that participation is not restricted to small choirs only. Anyone who supports the ideals of the organisation is welcome to join in, whether from a large choir themselves or just a member of the congregation of the host church. So, if anyone from All Saints would like to be part of the festival, just access the website (www.small-choirs.org.uk/feb2016), see what is being sung, and fill in the online form. Alternatively, ring Philip Norman, on 020 8519 6491.

Even if you are not available to sing, do support the concluding festival from 5 – 6pm.
 

LENT at ALL SAINTS
CONFESSIONS at the beginning of Lent:
Monday 8 February – 12 – 1pm and 5 – 6pm
Tuesday 9 February – 12 – 1pm and 5 – 6pm

ASH WEDNESDAY, 10 February 
Low Mass with Ashing – 8am 
Confessions 12 – 1pm 
Low Mass with Ashing – 1.10pm 
Confessions 5 – 5.45pm 
ASH WEDNESDAY HIGH MASS and Imposition of Ashes, 6.30pm
Preacher: Fr Michael Bowie
Missa ‘Emendemus in melius’ – Palestrina
Libera nos, salva nos – Sheppard

Reading and Meditating on God’s Holy Word
In addition to our normal reading and preaching on scripture in the liturgy at All Saints, we are providing some opportunities for study:

FEBRUARY/MARCH FILM NIGHTS – A series of films will be shown in church on Thursdays after the Evening Mass.

18 February – Romero 
The story of the martyred Archbishop of San Salvador.

25 February – Calvary
The personal calvary of an Irish priest threatened by death.

3 March – The Gospel According to St. Matthew 
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s masterpiece

10 March – Of Gods and Men Xavier Beauvois’ film of the life and death of Trappist monks in Algeria amidst Islamist violence.

READING GROUP – Fridays at 11am from 5 February, the Vicarage.

We are reading the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent Book: I Am With You, written by the Revd. Dr. Kathryn Greene-McCreight who is a chaplain at Yale University and is an assistant priest at the Christ Church, New Haven.  In I Am With You she explores the scriptural portrayal of God’s presence among us as light in darkness. Readings of Scripture are woven into a framework patterned on the seven monastic hours of prayer and the seven days of creation.  

The devotion of STATIONS OF THE CROSS will take place after the Evening Mass at 7.05pm on Fridays during Lent (starting Fri 12 February). 

EVENTS FOR FEBRUARY 2016 BEYOND ALL SAINTS

PANCAKE PARTY AT ST CYPRIAN’S – 
Tuesday 9 February, 7.30pm 
Fr Gerald Beauchamp writes: ‘All being well the new kitchen and toilets at St Cyprian’s should be finished by the end of January. To celebrate and to test them out informally St Cyprian’s is planning to have a pancake party on Tuesday 9 February starting at 7.30pm. I realise that you may already have plans that evening but you are very welcome to come if you are free. We will do something more official by way of thanksgiving on St Cyprian’s Day (Thursday 15 September) but that’s a bit long to wait.’ Please let Fr Gerald Beauchamp know if you can come on 9 February. E: Gerald.beauchamp@btconnect.com. Thank you.

LENT LECTURE – John Keble Church, Mill Hill, Dean’s Lane HA8 9NT, 11am – 2.30pm, Saturday 20 February

‘No Abiding City: Christian presence, problems and possibilities in the Middle East’. Lecture to be given by: The Rt Revd Michael Lewis, Bishop of Cyprus and Gulf in the Episcopal Province of Jerusalem and the East.

This is a free event, but a small contribution of £3 on the day would be appreciated to cover the cost of lunch. For further information please contact: revrana@hotmail.com.  

JESUIT REFUGEE SERVICE INFORMATION EVENING, Tuesday 23 February, 6.45pm at Farm St Jesuit Church Hall, 114 Mount St, London W1K 3AH. Come and hear about how JRS is supporting refugees in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon as well as here in the UK and find out what you can do to help.  Speakers: Fr Michael Zammit SJ, Regional Director JRS Middle East and Sarah Teather, Director JRS UK.   Free with a retiring collection for the work of JRS.  

POETRY TEA PARTY, Saturday 27 February 3pm, at Pamela’s.  All welcome.  Please bring Poetry and Prose for ST DAVID’S DAY (coming up soon).  To accept, or to ask for Pamela’s address, please speak to Pamela or Sandra in the courtyard or ring Sandra on 020 7637 8456 leaving your name and phone number.  Cost £6 towards the All Saints Restoration Appeal.

HUGH PRICE HUGHES LECTURES 2016  
All lectures will be held at Hinde St Methodist Church at 7.30pm.  Admission is free & all are welcome! www.hindestreet.org.uk/hph

This series will invite you to reflect on how other ways of knowing and seeing – “faith” commitments for some – relate to their Christian faith. These alternative and complementary ways of knowing and seeing, sometimes portrayed negatively by people of faith, have the potential to deepen our understanding of our faith commitments and enable us to engage more constructively with the wider world.

When science exceeds faith, and vice-versa:
reflections on belief by an evolutionary biologist
9 February – Dr Robert Asher
Curator of Vertebrates in the University of Cambridge & Paleobiologist

Thinking globally, act locally
8 March – Polly March
Head of Campaigns & Policy at Global Justice

12 April – Rev Ric Stott
Artist & Methodist Pioneer minister

Identity, Modernity and Faith 
10 May – Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Journalist

Living as Christians in Multi-faith Britain and
the Importance of Religious Literacy
14 June – Michael Wakelin
Religion & Media Consultant

From 6.30pm, Tuesday 1 March 2016
Churches Together in Westminster MEET THE NEIGHBOURS hosted by The Salvation Army, Regent Hall, 275 Oxford Street (opposite BHS)

The visit will include: an act of worship together, a short talk about the history of Regent Hall and the Salvation Army including its activities and outreach, music (a chance to hear the Regent Hall Band playing) and refreshments. All are very welcome to join.

ALL SAINTS MISSION ACTIVITIES:-

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 during the cold weather.  

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 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/virtualtour – 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   
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