All Saints Parish Newsletter
Epiphany
Dear Friends,
If you haven’t ever attended Morning or Evening Prayer at All Saints, we would like to take this opportunity to invite you to join us any morning (Monday to Saturday) at 7:30am and evening 6:00pm. You could attend on your way to, or home from, work, or perhaps commit to attending once a week in Lent.
I notice especially as we sit in on these darker mornings and evenings, the way the light falls in All Saints (under our present lighting system – fundraising to start this year for a new Lighting system). In the Sanctuary, the Holy Family are well lit, the next register of decoration is less obvious, but one can make out the image of our Lord Crucified. This morning, I was struck, that Christ in Majesty exists just out of sight. I know He’s there, but in the lofty heights of the Sanctuary the image is mysteriously shrouded by this world’s darkness.
In these recent days it’s easy to see and share in the life of the Holy Family, it looks inviting, it is well illuminated for us to see and celebrate. If we choose, we can see amongst the shepherds, the ass and oxen and wonder at the child, the prince of peace. It is less obvious to see, both in the panels at All Saints and in reflection, how we share in Christ’s suffering on the cross. It seems that what he did as a man, is just beyond us, perhaps too great a sacrifice for many of us today. But in the early church, as we have recalled in these days following Christmas, infants and adults shared in our Lord’s passion and through their witness to him, share in his death and resurrection. Yet the majesty of Christ seems hidden in the early morning darkness and when the evening light has gone. It is that majesty which the Magi seek and eventually see, and which we hear about in our Gospel this Sunday as we celebrate The Epiphany. The journey is symbolically difficult, long and poses a threat to the infant who is momentarily illumined in our world’s sight, yet, the eternal and the temporal truth of this child is recognised through the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Perhaps immediately, but less obvious to them is that which is sometimes less obvious or immediate for the world to see: The Majesty of God wrapped up in creation, worshipped by a Mother, shepherds and wise men, then, and today.
An Epiphany treat…
See you soon,
Fr. John
Please pray for Christopher Ryan, Michael Harris, Linda Orme, Mary Barnet, Jackie Ferriter, Joshua Levy, Audrey Patterson, Celia Shore, Michael Sullivan, Rachel Clayton, Heather Walker, Richard Tann, Brian Sparkes, John Rogers, Mason Jacobson, Barbara Laws, Marguerite Crill, David Day, Timothy Montgomery, Timothy Harding, Andrew Tillyard, Stephen Finch, Jonathan Jennings, Caroline Chartres, Melanie, Angela Thompson, Rosie Flack The Recently Departed: Nicholas Assheton, Polly Rafter, Jacintha Saldhana, Fr. Richard Eyre, Dunbar Bryan, Geoffrey Oakeshott, Trisha Oakes, Fr. David Jowitt, Belinda Hill, Fr. Maurice Slaughter at the anniversary of their death: Henry Howell, John Wylde, Joan Banyard, John Auton, Ernest Waggett, Timothy Shaw, Emily Finnus, Tom Ryder, Mary Park, Constance Tweed, Robert Routledge, Winifred Nash, Lilian Yorke, Fay Ireland, Jill Horley, Anthony Bullock, Kay Leahy, Sylvia Scott, Jack Finnie, Alice Freeth, Hermia Mills, Ann Ind, Katherine Humphries, Michael Flemming, Anthea Candlin, Richard Candlin, Eric Bailey, Sophia Wickenden, Beryl Peryer.
Epiphany – 6th January – Preacher – Fr. Christopher Woods – The Liturgical Commission & National Worship Advisor
Evening Prayer is said at 4.30pm on Sunday
SUNDAY Evening 6pm Epiphany Carol Service with the Choir of All Saints.
Gingerbread Church:
Shawn Welby-Cooke, one of our creative servers at All Saints, has over the past couple of days been creating a gingerbread copy of All Saints Margaret Street. A photograph is on the Parish Website of this wonderful creation (pre-decorated), which is going to be sold off bit by bit on the Feast of the Epiphany (this Sunday) in aid of the restoration fund. If you would like to munch on the spire, the nave roof or the quire, there are about 16 – 18 pieces you can buy to eat and share, including a gingerbread vicar and assistant priests. Donations for different parts are asked to be ‘generous’. Fr John insists that his effigy in gingerbread sells for no less than £10… It could feed a family!! Come and buy part of the ‘gingerbread Church’ – All Saints Margaret Street. Viewing in the parish room before mass or in the Courtyard if good weather. For an image of the Gingerbread Church, see Events on the Parish Website.
PRESENTATION OF CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE – CANDLEMAS – Friday 1st February 2013 at 6:30 pm – Preacher: The Venerable Malcolm Squires, former Archdeacon of Wrexham
Music: God is light, Harry Bramma; Missa Bell’amfitrit’altera, Lassas; Nunc dimittis (Service in D), Dyson.
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: 18-25 January
Sunday 20th January – Fr. Alan is preaching at 11:30 Eucharist at St Paul’s Cathedral
February 10th – 11:00am High Mass – Fr. John Pritchard’s Last service as Assistant Priest at All Saints.
ASH WEDNESDAY
13th February 2013 – Low Masses 8:00am & 1:10pm (with Ashing)
High Mass – 6:30pm with Ashing. Preacher: The Vicar.
The retreat this year will be at Bishop Woodford House, Ely, from Friday 15th March to Sunday 17th March. At this stage a conductor has yet to be chosen and a definite price to be fixed. Martin Wooley will happily receive expressions of interest, and enquiries, on 020 7436 2858, 07976 275 383 or at m.g.wooley@btinternet.com. (The order of receipt will be carefully noted to enable peaceful allocation of rooms and facilities.) A fully informative letter will be issued in due course to those who put their names down.