All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friends,

“I am gentle and humble of heart.”

The words of part of this Sunday’s gospel (Matthew 11: 25-30) have been echoing in my mind all week.  On Monday morning I read them at my father-in-law Andrew’s funeral mass. 

The passage is the gospel set this year for the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Andrew was for many years closely attached to the Passionist Order, who wear on their habits a Sacred Heart surmounted by a cross. The Divine Compassion of our Lord is the hallmark of the order, and of Andrew’s ministry as a deacon.  So those words of Jesus, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light,”  were particularly apt for one whose ordained ministry had begun working with young unemployed people and had later been focussed on the spiritual care of the dying in the local hospice.

I heard them  again that evening, at the first mass of Carol Ford, one of our ordinands from All Saints, celebrated in St. Peter’s Church in the Cowgate, a tough parish in Newcastle.  The Mass was in honour of the Sacred Heart: Carol was raised an Irish Roman Catholic, so she and Andrew probably grew up with the same hymns and prayers!

The same words marked the end of one ministry and the beginning of another.

They speak of something which should lie at the heart of any Christian ministry and any church community: welcome for the weary and heavy-laden; those struggling with the burdens of life, even those wounds which are self-inflicted, nobody’s fault but our own.

Someone from our local community came to see me the other day and, in the course of our conversation, he mentioned more than once that All Saints had a reputation for welcoming all sorts and conditions of people.

We may have a reputation for liturgy and architecture, music and preaching but unless we reflect something of the compassion at the heart of God, all that would be in vain.  As last Sunday’s collect puts it: “all our doings without love are nothing worth.”

At the beginning of Sunday’s gospel, before the verses I have referred to, Jesus compares his generation to children singing in the market place:

“We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.”

Such was the fickleness of public opinion, then and now, that those who rejected John the Baptist’s fierce austerity and thought him mad or possessed by a demon, also dismissed Jesus’ easy conviviality with tax-collectors and sinners. He was dismissed as, “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners.”  

Some might criticise us for welcoming people who offend against their criteria of respectability. They would have grounds for criticism, but only if we do not put before people the challenge of the gospel as well as its comfort. But for many in our world who have heard or experienced the Church only in censorious mode, the words of compassion and comfort need to come first. Only when people have been made welcome, made to feel that they are welcome, that there is a place for them close to the heart of Jesus, will they be able to hear the challenging words of Jesus as something other than condemnation.  

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: Harry Allan, Alan Bishton, Susan Beauchamp, Rachel Clayton, Rosamond Clayton, Kate Down, Jean East, Geoff, Yvonne & Philip Harland, Lewis Harvey, Juliet Jefferson, Katherine Lee, Molly Leng, Joshua Levy, Christine Loffty, Jonathan Mani-Weoki, Caroline Masterton-Smith, Hilary Morgan, Norman Newby, Frances O’Neil, Malcolm Richards, Peter Royle, Dilys Thomas, Mary Thomas, James Wheen and Joy Wright.

For the recently departed: Gillean Russell, Ellen Aitken (Priest), Stewart Marshall, May Normisle and Andrew O’Connor (Deacon) and John Hughes (Priest).

At the anniversary of their death (during the coming week): Phillip Smith, Molly Mather, Lucy Wentworth-Reeve, Winifred Burling, Tom Sanders, Doreen Davis, MBE, Flying Officer Gordon Arthur RAF – killed in action 1941, Aileen Buxton (Sacristan at All Saints), Mabel Pearce, Laurence Olivier (actor and director), Wilfred Stansfield, Cyril Ward.

EVENTS THIS COMING WEEK

WORSHIP AT ALL SAINTS THIS SUNDAY 6 JULY – THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

HIGH MASS at 11am
Preacher: Father Michael Bowie
Missa Brevis – Leighton
Pange lingua gloriosi – Bob Chilcott
 
CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION at 6pm
Preacher: Prebendary Alan Moses
Service in F minor—Gray
Unser lieber Frauen Traum—Reger

After Benediction, at 7.15pm – ORGAN RECITAL by All Saints’ Dr John Birch Organ Scholar – NICHOLAS MANNOUKAS.
The programme includes: Psalm-Prelude Lento, poco appenato (ps. 34 v. 6) op. 32 – Howells; Plein jeu, Tierce en taille, Grand jeu – du Mage, Prelude & fugue in C BWV545 – Bach; Choral no. 3 in A minor (1890) – Franck. Retiring collection to support the Choir and Music at All Saints (suggested donation £3.50). The All Saints Licensed Club/Bar below the Church will be open afterwards.

Saturday 12 July, 2.30pm – the marriage of Amy Moore and Ari Weisz-Koves will take place at All Saints.  

WORSHIP NEXT SUNDAY – 13 JULY – FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY

HIGH MASS at 11am
Preacher: Father Julian Browning 
Messa da cappella – Lotti 
O Lord, give thy Holy Spirit – Tallis

CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION at 6pm
Preacher: Father Gerald Beauchamp
Service in G – Sumsion 
My soul, there is a country – Parry

SPECIAL EVENTS FROM JULY TO SEPTEMBER at ALL SAINTS & ELSEWHERE

ALL SAINTS PARISH PILGRIMAGE TO WALSINGHAM (Friday 18 – Sunday 20 July) The annual pilgrimage will be led this year by Fr Michael Bowie. Please let Ross Buchanan (Assistant Secretary Cell of Our Lady of Walsingham, All Saints Margaret Street) know of your interest on Tel: 020 7221 1312.

NAUTICAL POETRY TEA – Saturday 30 August at 4pm
All welcome.  Please bring poetry or prose on a Nautical Theme.  Please note different venue.  This tea will be held at Paul Weston & John McWhinney’s moorings in Wapping.  Cream tea (scones, cream & jam) will be served. To accept and to find out the address of the moorings please speak with Paul or John after Mass or email them at paul@hcmoorings.org. 
A donation of £6 towards the Restoration Appeal would be appreciated.

THE ANNUNCIATION MARBLE ARCH – Centenary Feast of Celebration
Tuesday 16 September 2014, 7.30pm in The Annunciation
To celebrate the Annunciation’s 100th birthday and in the tradition of Dinners in the Community Ben Wegg-Prosser has put together a glittering event to raise funds for the restoration of the church.
The speakers are Alain de Botton, Matthew Parris and Tessa Jowell with Fr Victor Stock (author and former Dean of Guildford) in the chair. The Churchill Hyatt Hotel has most generously donated the hospitality for the evening so all ticket money goes to church funds. Tickets are £50 or tables of 10 are £450. Please contact Fr Gerald (gerald.beauch@btconnect.com) if you would like to come.

NOTICES

ALL SAINTS SUPPORT FOR HOMELESS PEOPLE – MARYLEBONE PROJECT –

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 provided the funds for one of the 4 beds – provides a safe haven and refuge for women escaping domestic violence, financial crisis, sexual exploitation and mental health issues.

Seasonal Appeals – Last year we donated £2,790 to this Mission Project, collected through the All Saints Festival and Lent Appeals. The PCC has agreed to a target of £3,000 for 2014.

Year Round Support – we also support the Resettlement Project with non-perishable food and toiletries or household necessities like cutlery or bed linen/blankets. Please contribute to this effort, bringing donations to the Parish Office or leaving them in Church in the basket in the Baptistery.

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.

ALL SAINTS RESTORATION APPEAL UPDATE
The Programme
The electrical scheme is progressing well. Preparations continue to advance each week, with the Butterfield designed lighting fittings now commissioned and in construction at the blacksmiths.  Tenders for the work have been returned, been analysed and a recommendation was made to the PCC and approved on Sunday 29 June.  Meetings have taken place with the contractor to review costs and final details before letting a contract. Then the work of stripping out the existing installation can commence.

As in previous phases of the restoration programme, weekday worship, except on major feasts, will take place in the Parish Room. This will enable to contractors to have more uninterrupted working time, keep costs down and speed the whole process.

The Fundraising Appeal
Fund-raising continues. We still await the result of applications which are in to a small number of charitable trusts who we hope may be sympathetic. So far the extended family of All Saints has donated or pledged a total of £221, 158 towards our original budget target of £250,000. This is over 88.4% of the sum required, an excellent result in a little over seven months. Our thanks to all who have so generously contributed to date. With some £28,840 still to find – further donations are of course welcome! Cheques should be made payable to: All Saints Church Restoration Appeal and be sent to the Parish Administrator. Please indicate where Gift Aid may be applied as it increases the value of your contribution by 25%. Thank you!

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.

* 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.

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 (the Church is open every day of the week from 7am to 7pm except on Bank Holidays, when it opens for the lunchtime Mass only)

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

MONDAY TO FRIDAY
Morning Prayer at 7.30am
Low Mass at 8am, 1.10pm and 6.30pm
(Except bank holiday – 1.10pm Mass only)
Confessions from 12.30pm -1pm and 5.30pm
(No Confessions on bank holidays)
Evening Prayer at 6pm

SATURDAYS
Morning Prayer at 7.30am
Low Mass at 8.00am and 6.30pm (First Mass of Sunday)
Confessions at 5.30pm
Evening Prayer at 6pm

On major weekday feasts, High Mass is sung at 6.30pm with Evening Prayer at 5.45pm.

A priest is available in church for confessions or counsel every weekday from 12.30-1pm (except Saturdays) and at 5.30pm, or by appointment. The clergy are always happy to see anyone for whatever reason. Please enquire at the Parish Office (to the right as you enter the church courtyard).

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