All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friend,

I’m writing on the day when we woke up hearing about an innocent woman killed, and others injured, in a vicious knife attack a few streets from here. We don’t yet fully understand the motivation behind this incident, but the act echoes others not so far away. Life, even in a prosperous modern western democracy, is more fragile than we sometimes suppose. It is faith, not material prosperity (or insurance), which gives us ultimate safety and security: this leads to true, eternal life, as Jesus puts it, for then we live in the hands of God, as Abraham, and Jesus himself, were content to do.

‘The God of Abraham praise’, we’ll be singing as the sanctuary party enters the church for High Mass on Sunday and it would be a reasonable question to ask, ‘why?’, for the gospel reading does not mention the Patriarch. But the first reading recalls God’s promise to him, in his and Sarah’s childless old age, of descendants ‘as many as the stars of heaven’ and the second, from Hebrews, focuses on the faithfulness of Abraham, the hook on which St Paul hangs the whole Christian project.

Abraham (still Abram at this point, as Sarah was still Sarai, for this section of Genesis is partly an aetiological account of how they got their names) is a figure of deep history. Abraham is not nearly as mysterious as the priest Melchizedek (whom he’s just met in an encounter which prefigures the Eucharist), but he is also not as accessible a figure to history as, say, John the Baptist or the Apostles. His faith is the core of why Christians remember him. It is demonstrated in several encounters, some easier for us to process than others. His willingness to sacrifice his son, while adding to the scriptural prophecies of the crucifixion, is not a comfortable story if we pay attention to the detail (being prepared to kill one’s son with a knife is beginning to sound horribly close to news, rather than Good News). But the promise which makes us his descendants, and his willingness to embark on the journey required of him ‘in faith’, keep his example before us.

Abraham’s faith is set beside the Gospel on Sunday as a reminder that for us faith is to be the deep resounding theme underneath our lives, the still point that will help us to react appropriately to unexpected change (even the coming of the Lord himself). Faith, and faithfulness, give us a powerful readiness for what Harold Macmillan called ‘events’.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Michael Bowie

Assistant Priest

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 Jacques Hamel (pr), Darlene Horton.

Remember past priests, benefactors, friends, and all whose year’s mind occurs this week including: 
Harriet Gray, Sidney Browne, Gay Cardew, Leslie York, Andre Heley, David Johnstone, Charles Oram, Marie-Olivier Mercy, David Welch, Marie O’Connor, Barbara Davis, Beatrice Taylor, Joan Pulham (Sacristan), Philip Merritt, Valerie Hargreaves-Smith, Thomas Straker, Winfred Goleleo, Richard Fitzgerald, John Edmonds and Ivy Oram.

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

WORSHIP THIS WEEK:

SUNDAY 7 AUGUST, TRINITY 11

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

There is no Sunday lunch service today.

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

WORSHIP NEXT WEEK:

SATURDAY 13 AUGUST, 11.30am Walsingham Devotions and Mass 

SUNDAY 14 AUGUST, TRINITY 12

HIGH MASS, 11am
Preacher: The Vicar 
Missa Orgelsolomesse , K 259 – Mozart
Hymn of the Cherubim – Rachmaninov

EVE OF THE ASSUMPTION SOLEMN EVENSONG
& BENEDICTION, 6pm
Preacher: Fr Michael Bowie 
Stanford in A
Ave maris stella – Monteverdi

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