All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friend,

Monday was the feast of St. James the Great. As I had not long returned from my pilgrimage to his shrine at Santiago de Compostela in Spain, Fr. Michael had suggested that I should preach.

The purpose of my pilgrimage, as many of you know, was to raise funds for persecuted Christians in the Middle East. The pilgrimage to Santiago in the Middle Ages was closely bound up with the conflict between Christians and Muslims in Spain, symbolized by the portrayal of the apostle a Santiago Matamoros – St. James the Slayer of the Moors.

James was the first of the apostles to be martyred, so it seems appropriate to say something about different understandings of martyrdom in the context of what some seek to portray as a new conflict between Christians and Muslims.

“The language of martyrdom is often heard on the lips of Islamist terrorists to describe those who perish in Jihad, in holy war. It buzzes around the internet to lure young people, school kids even, from families and schools in our own country to join their cause.

However, there is a crucial difference between this understanding of martyrdom and the Church’s, which we need to be clear about and to make clear to others.  For Islamist ideologues, who combine faith with ideas of revolutionary violence, taken in fact from the political extremes of left and right in Europe, martyrdom is entirely compatible with the taking of the lives of those considered to be infidel. So suicide bombers who blow themselves and others to bits on buses or trains, or fly aircraft into buildings, or drive a truck into holiday crowds in Nice, will be rewarded in heaven.  The intention of those who perpetrate such acts is to sow the seeds of division and fear, to turn communities against each other; to build walls not bridges.

The Christian understanding of martyrdom is a very different one: The word ‘martyr’ means ‘witness’.   The martyrs are those who remain faithful in their allegiance to Christ, their witness to him, even to the point of death.  The martyr’s witness to Christ is a sharing in the suffering and death of the one who came not to take the life of others, even those of his enemies, but to give his own life for their sake.  Christian martyrdom is about the giving up of one’s own life, the shedding of one’s own blood, not that the taking or shedding the lives and blood of others.”

What I could not know as I preached these words was that two days later two young Muslims, followers of the Islamic State, would burst into a church in Rouen during the morning Mass and kill the elderly priest, Fr. Jacques Hamel, who was celebrating. 

The horror of this sacrilege is only compounded by the fact that Fr. Hamel had long worked to build relationships between people of different faiths.  The terrorists do not want such relationships to flourish because they have no part in their nightmarish vision of the world.

More than one commentator has noted that the Church’s response has not been to demand vengeance but to call people to prayer and understanding: that prayer in which Fr. Hamel was engaged at the very moment of his death; that understanding he had worked to build.

On both sides of the Atlantic, we are seeing the emergence of dark forces preaching hatred, fear and division; seeking to build walls – in one case quite literally – rather than bridges.  They set out to demonize whole groups of people on the grounds of their religion or race. Some even claim that they are doing this in the name of Christian civilization.  

Christians have a lesson here from the life of St. James. On one occasion he and John, the “sons of thunder,” as Jesus nicknamed them to reflect their fiery temperament, wanted to call down fire from heaven on the Samaritan village which had refused hospitality to Jesus because he was a Jew, but it was not the Samaritans whom Jesus rebuked but his disciples.

Can we imagine our Lord doing anything else to our latter-day sons of thunder and those who applaud them?

Yours in Christ,

Fr Alan Moses
Prebendary Alan Moses
Vicar, All Saints Margaret Street
Area Dean of Westminster – St Marylebone

Please pray for those who have asked for our prayers: Asia Bibi, Alixe Bainbridge-Spring, Peter Brentnall and family, Br. Michael OSB, James Cary-Elwes, Fr Andrew Davis, Mark Dougly, Kate Down, David Fettke, Ghislain Hamelin, Lewis Harvey, Gwyneth Hopkins, Maria Keen, David Kennett, Andrew Laird, Tom Leader, Miriam Nelson, Fr. Robert Norwood, Oliver Orr, David Pearce, Agnes Poitevin-Navarre, Canon John Rees, Bill Rodger, Bishop John Salt, Alma Sheard, Stella and Helen Skinner, Rose Stephens, Madeleine Storer, Tony Tomlin, Christine van Dyck, Lynn Van Keulen, Robert Walmsley, Jenny Ward & Baby Emily and Joy Wright.   

For the recently departed:  Julia Holland, Brian Welby-Cooke, Catherine Hancock, Alice Harford and Pere Jacques Hamel.

Remember past priests, benefactors, friends, and all whose year’s mind occurs this week including:  John Gardner, Francis Woodlock, Margery Duce, Winefred Cratherne, John Welch, Patrick Whatmore, Sara Stevens, Eva Spencer, Harriet Brownlow Byron (Mother Foundress of the All Saints Sisters of the Poor 1887), Donald Scott, Mona Morgan, Julian Davies, Jessie Graves and David Archer.

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

WORSHIP THIS WEEK:

PLEASE NOTE ADVANCE WARNING OF POTENTIAL TRAVEL DISRUPTION: 
Saturday 30/ Sunday 31 July – Prudential RideLondon (Festival of Cycling) – roads and bridges will be affected across Surrey and London – plan ahead and know your travel options. 
Search TfL Ride London. Roads in Westminster like the Mall, the Strand and Trafalgar Square, Aldwych, Kingsway, High Holborn, Piccadilly and Knightsbridge, Millbank and Chelsea Embankment are closed for use for the cycling events and the ripple effect onto a wider network of roads in the centre of London is inevitable. There are lots of places to watch the Prudential RideLondon events – visit www.PrudentialRideLondon.co.uk.

SUNDAY 31 JULY – TRINITY 10
HIGH MASS, 11am 
Preacher: The Vicar, Prebendary Alan Moses
Missa Secundi Toni – Lassus
Ave maris stella – Grieg

Sunday Lunch is being cooked today by Geoffrey Woodcock & Philip Payne.  The menu is: Roast lamb, new potatoes, vegetables followed by Churchwarden’s Birthday Cake and coffee. Tickets £5 from the Parish Shop pre & post Mass.

EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm
A Festival Evensong as part of the Max Reger centenary commemorations:
RegerFest in London 23 – 31 July
Double Choir setting in G – Wood
Mit Gottes Hilf (Schlachtgesang), Op 138, No 7 – Reger

WORSHIP NEXT WEEK:

Please Note: the Parish Administrator is on annual leave from Monday 1 – Friday 5 August, so the office will be closed. Emails and voicemails will be checked occasionally.

SUNDAY 7 AUGUST, TRINITY 11
HIGH MASS, 11am 
Preacher: Fr Michael  Bowie 
Missa Brevis – Berkeley 
Ave verum corpus – Elgar

EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm
Preacher: Fr Barry Orford
Wood in E flat No 1
Te lucis ante terminum – Tyler

LOOKING FORWARD – DATES FOR YOUR DIARY:

Saturday 13 August, 11.30am Walsingham Devotions and Mass

THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, Monday 15 August – High Mass and Outdoor Procession, 6.30pm.
Preacher: Father Julian Browning
Missa Brevis in D, K194 – Mozart
Ave Maria – Parsons  

This is the second year that there will be a circular outdoor procession (with choir, brass & drum) of the statue of Our Lady of Walsingham from Church along Oxford Street in the evening and back to Church. The Feast of the Assumption is our major annual celebration of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. On this day, we thank God for Mary, the first Christian, and ask her prayers for all persecuted Christians. Please make this as successful as our annual Corpus Christi procession, enjoyed by so many, by joining us for this special feast and encouraging your friends to come and take part in this act of witness to our faith on the streets of central London. Let’s ‘Hail Mary’ with gusto in these challenging times! Refreshments will be provided after the service and procession – all are welcome.  

PARISH NOTICES 

If anyone is able to volunteer as a steward or a bearer for the Assumption Procession on Monday 15 August, please get in touch with Cedric Stephens.

UPDATE ON THE VICAR’S FUNDRAISING PILGRIMAGE & WHAT TO DO ABOUT SPONSORSHIP MONIES 
Fr. Alan completed 566.5 km of his fundraising walking pilgrimage before knee injury called a halt to his heroic endeavours. If you have/would like to sponsor him and help achieve his target of £20k for the Diocese of London’s projects for persecuted Christians in Iraq and Syria, please send cheques to: PAROCHIAL CHURCH ALL SAINTS, Parish Office, All Saints, 7 Margaret Street, London W1W 8JG. We will process gift aid and forward funds to the Bishop of London’s Lent Appeal 2016. Donations received to date total £13,400 – please help to close the gap with the target.

CHRISTIAN AID COLLECTION 
We have received a poster and letter of appreciation from Christian Aid (displayed on the courtyard noticeboard) for the £535 sent in to them from All Saints following Christian Aid week donations. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this good cause. This was an uplift on the 2015 collection.

SERVICES & EVENTS FOR AUGUST and SEPTEMBER 2016 BEYOND ALL SAINTS

COMPLINE at ST CYPRIAN’S – coming up Thursday 25 August, 9pm  – Compline is a service of evening prayers forming part of the Divine Office of the Western Christian Church, traditionally said (or chanted) before retiring for the night. It is planned to recite the office of Compline at St Cyprian’s on the last Thursday of each month at 9pm. It is a short, reflective service, comprising psalms, prayers and a hymn, said or sung. We will observe silence before and after the service, which we hold in the choir, in candlelight and the minimum of artificial light. Laypersons will lead compline, and all are welcome. The date for the next service will be Thursday 25 August.

ST CYPRIAN’S FESTIVAL WEEKEND
Thursday 15 September, 7.30pm High Mass 
Preacher: Ven Luke Miller, Archdeacon of London

Friday 16 September, 6.30pm Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas performed by Francis Holland School

Saturday 17 September, 7.30pm Quiz Night – start getting your teams together!

Sunday 18 September, 10.30am Parish Mass

ST MARY’S BOURNE STREET TALKS 
One of London’s principal Anglo-Catholic churches, closely connected with the intellectual thought of the Catholic tradition in the Church of England, will be holding a number of lectures in memory of the distinguished personalities who were instrumental in the life of this church. On Thursday 22 September the talk will be by the Right Rev’d and Right Hon the Lord Williams of Oystermouth, former Archbishop of Canterbury on, when his topic will be, ‘The Malines Legacy: a vision for Anglican – Roman catholic dialogue? Admission is free and the lecture will be held in the church.

ALL SAINTS MISSION ACTIVITIES:- 
The charities we had agreed to support through the Lent Appeal 2016 (and including applicable Gift Aid) received the following sums:-  

Marylebone Project – £2,666.67 – emergency refuge and rehoming project for homeless women. 
Us (formerly USPG) – £2,666.67 – work with those experiencing Aids and HIV in Zimbabwe.  
London Diocese Lent Appeal – £2,666.66 – this year supporting Syrian and Iraqi refugees through charities Open Doors and Aid to the Church in Need.  
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this great achievement – a significantly enhanced total collected through the Lent Appeal compared with recent years – of £8,000. 

** Letters of appreciation have been received from Us and the Marylebone Project and can be seen on the Church noticeboard. ***

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.  **** The Project has recently written to express their thanks for the donation of household goods, food and toiletries which have gone into the emergency store to equip them to respond to the financial crises of their residents and help them to find strength and comfort from their services. **** 

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 donating £1,000 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, 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   
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