All Saints Parish Newsletter 9th August 2013
Dear Friends,
“Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning.”
Many of us are on holiday, taking a break from the responsibilities of work; not so much “dressed for action” as for the beach. In this Sunday’s gospel (Luke 12.32-40), Jesus sounds as if he is calling us back to duty.
Some of us are still at work but these days of early August have a clamer feel to them. There are no ecclesiastical meetings. Masses still have to be celebrated, sermons prepared, confessiosn heard, the sick visited and so on and this week I have to get the parish email letter out unaided: no mean challenge for a technologically disadvantaged vicar!
If we take time to ponder it, we hear in that gospel echoes of past and future:
the memory of the first Passover, eaten by the Israelites in haste, loins girded and staff in hand, before setting out on the journey from slavery to freedom;
at the Last Supper in Luke, Jesus uses the same kind of language about himself when he says, “I am among you as one who serves;”
in the parable, the vigilance demanded of disciples is like that of servants waiting their master’s return from “the wedding feast.”
That watchfulness brings about an extraordinary reversal: instead of them serving the master, “he will gird himself, and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them.”
That overt-turning of the way things are expected to be is echoes in George Herbert’s poem, Love III
Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guiltie of dust and sinne.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
If I lacked any thing.
A guest, I answer’d, worthy to be here:
Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkinde, ungratefull? Ah, my deare,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?
Truth Lord, but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, sayes Love, who bore the blame>
My deare, then I will serve.
You must sit down, sayes Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat.
Words worth learning by heart and pondering as we celebrate the Christian Passover, with our loins girded and our lamps lit, in expectation of the Lord who comes ot us in the marriage supper of the lamp..
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Alan Moses
Please pray for the Sick:
Harry Allan, Peter Burbidge, Margaret Campbell, Rachel Clayton, Bishop Roy Davies, Rosie Davis, Sheena Cruse, Denise Inge, Mason Jacobsen, Linda Jervis, Mary Johnstone, Katherine Lee, Joshua Levy, Miriam Morris, Marimar Perez Fab, Josepa Rodgriguez Celdran, Celia Shore, Stephen Short, Ian Stevens, Kate thomas, Andrew Tillyard, Melanie Toogood, David and Jo Vincent, Heather Walker, Pat Walker, Wendy Wall.
the recently Departed:
Bridget Dudley, Judith Jackson Stevens, Sabrina Fry, Hubert Gralka, Margaret Cooper, David Collins, Gloriah Mensah, Francis Gordon-Kerr, Martin Sprigate,, Jacob Subbiah. John Webb.
This Week:
Thursday 15th August
The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
6.30pm Procession and High Mass.
Our preacher is Prebendary Alan Green, Vicar of St. John’s, Bethnal Green.
The Music of the Mass: Missa ‘Assumpta est Maria ‘ – Palestrina.
Anthem: Assumpta est Maria – Philips.
Saturday 17 August, 3pm
Poetry Tea -‘Being a Woman Poetically,;
at the Annunciation, Bryanston Street W1H 7AH.
All welcome. Please bring poems or prose on the subject of womanhood and mnotherhood. We have chosen this theme for Assumptiontide to explore what poets and writers have said about the feminine in our culture. Please contact Gillian Dare (020 8579 5898) or email daregillian@yahoo.co.uk or Sandra Wheen (020 7637 8456) or Fr. Gerald (geraldbeauch@btconnect.com) leaving your name and phone number if you ring. Cost £6 in aid of the All Saints Restoration Fund.
Next Sunday, 18 August
11am High Mass
Preacher: The Vicar
Missa Brevis – Andrea Gabrieli
O sacrum convivium – Marenzio
6pm Choral Evensong and Benediction
Preacher: Fr. Gerald Beauchamp
The Short Service – Gibbons
Am Himmelsfahrtstage – Mendelssohn