All Saints Margaret Street.

Dear Friends,

This Sunday, Easter 4, is Good Shepherd Sunday, one of the traditional post-Easter celebrations. Christ as the Good Shepherd is one of those once-striking Biblical images which may have lost their power to communicate through over-familiarity and cultural change. I don’t know if Fr Alan will have been revisiting any of the ancient basilica churches in Rome this week; whenever I see the apse mosaics in those churches I’m struck by how weird the images now look. We’re accustomed, of course to fluffy lambs and soft anaemic bearded Jesuses of the Victorian stained-glass variety. But in early Christian mosaics the twelve apostles are depicted as real, individuated sheep; the image is then (slightly oddly) mixed with the worship of Jesus, the sacrificial lamb of Revelation. Early Christian art also gives us Christ as a real shepherd with a sheep on his shoulders (iconography pinched from statues of the Roman god Hermes), now mixing the imagery with the parable of the lost sheep. And of course there’s long pedigree for the image in Old Testament pictures of God (or the king) as the shepherd of his people (as in Sunday’s psalm), as well as the less flattering comparison with real shepherds in Jesus’ day, who were rough and marginal people, distrusted by polite society (hence the oxymoron, which we mostly miss: a ‘good’ shepherd would be a contradiction in terms to most early listeners).

This year we’re given a very particular portion of Jesus’ good shepherd discourse, in which he seems to be struggling with his image a little. At one point, Jesus is the gate (John 10.7, 9); at another point, he is the shepherd (.11). At one point, the thieves and bandits try to enter the sheepfold not by the gate, but by climbing the wall (.1); at another point, they come to the gate and call the sheep, but their voice is not heeded (.8).

So what is this about? I think it may partly be about boundaries and safety, and how we often fear, and affirm, the wrong things in order to keep the church safe for us. The message, in ancient shepherd-speak, would be very simple: ‘stick with me, I’ll see you right’. Jesus was always clear that everyone is welcome; anyone who presumes to say that someone isn’t welcome is the only one he condemns. He always distinguished between who we are, which is loved unconditionally by God, and what we do, which can be wrong, and sometimes needs correction, repentance and forgiveness. But he never got stuck at that point: the destination was always Easter, not Good Friday. Perhaps one of the meanings of his image of himself as the door for the sheep in today’s gospel is to say that he keeps the boundaries, not us. The Church, after all, belongs to God: he can look after its safety, if that’s important. As ever, his message is ‘Do not be afraid.’

Yours in Christ,

Fr Michael Bowie, Assistant Priest
All Saints Margaret Street

Please pray for those who have asked for our prayers: Harry Allan, Alan Bishton, Susan Beauchamp, Jean Brackston, Rachel Clayton, Rosamond Clayton, Kate Down, Jean East, Ursula Edwards, Arthur Fearns, Canon David Garlick, Geoff, Yvonne & Philip Harland, Lewis Harvey, Kate Hickman, Jill, Katherine Lee, Molly Leng, Joshua Levy, Christine Loffty, Santa Luca, Kerry Manuel, Jonathan Mani-Weoki, Megan and Chantal, Norman Newby, Andrew O’Connor, Malcolm Richards, Peter Royle, Marilyn Stansfield, Dilys Thomas, Mary Thomas and Joy Wright.

For the recently departed: Shereka Marsh, John Mansfield, Michael Spencer, Lucas Drummond, Denise Inge, Antoinette Coote, Harry Woolhouse, Anne Maguire, Brenda Stather-Dunn, Gladys Harris, Robert Blott (former chorister of All Saints) and Neville Wilson.  

At the anniversary of their death (during the coming week): Barbara Watson, George Corbett (sometime Bursar of the All Saints Choir School), N.P. Williams (Priest), Ellen Markey, John Finnie, Edith Cooke, Douglas Laing, David West, Patrick Spencer (All Saints PCC member and Server), Mary Bayliss, Robin Nisbet, Elsie Rybczk, Winifred Beavan, Muriel Burling, John Carter (All Saints Server), Elsie Scott, Charles Simon, Richard Britten, Lucy Heath.

WORSHIP AT ALL SAINTS THIS SUNDAY – 11 MAY 
Fourth Sunday of Easter 
HIGH MASS and HOLY BAPTISM – JEREMY JOHN GREEN, 11am
Preacher: Prebendary Alan Moses
Missa Omnium Sanctorum – Caplin
My beloved spake – Hadley 

CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION, 6pm 
Preacher: Fr Michael Bowie
Service in G – Francis Jackson 
Abendlied – Rheinberger

EVENTS THIS WEEKEND:

Sunday 11 May – there is a meeting of the All Saints Servers after Mass.

ORGAN RECITAL (following BENEDICTION)
Sunday 11 May at 7.15pm – TIMOTHY BYRAM-WIGFIELD, Director of Music
Programme includes: Overture: Die Zauberflöte by W.A.Mozart
Trois morceaux parisiennes: Verset (Fantaisie) by Alexandre Guilmant – ‘Naïades’, from Pièces de Fantaisie Book 4, Op 55, No. 4 by Louis Vierne – Valse-Musette by Francis Poulenc – Adagio espressivo (Sonata, 1938) by Sir William Harris and
Prelude and Fugue in B, Op 7, No 1 by Marcel Dupré.  Retiring collection to support the Choir and Music at All Saints (suggested donation £3.50).

EVENTS THIS COMING WEEK

CHRISTIAN AID WEEK, 11 — 17 May 2014
Christian Aid Week 2014 will focus specifically on the work done by Christian Aid and its partners in tackling violence and building peace. Please put your contributions in the envelope provided and complete Gift Aid details where appropriate. Return Sunday 11 May or Sunday 18 May.
Cheques should made be payable to: Christian Aid. Thank you.

Monday 12 May 7pm (after Mass) – There is a meeting of the Standing Committee of the PCC in the Vicarage.

ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET – CELL OF OUR LADY OF WALSINGHAM
The next meeting will be at All Saints on Friday 16 May at 6.30 pm. Low Mass with Hymns will be followed by: Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus: The Visitation and the Hail Mary – an address by Fr Michael Bowie, recently inducted as Assistant Priest at All Saints and Cell Superior. There will be light refreshments afterwards. All welcome.

A PILGRIMAGE TO CANTERBURY, Organised by Anglican Catholic Future, Saturday 17 May – 10.30am Arrival and gather in the Crypt for Saturday Prayer, 11am Welcome and Address on Pilgrimage by the Very Revd. Robert Willis, Dean of Canterbury, 12noon Mass Preacher: Brother Stuart OSB, Abbot of Mucknell Abbey, 1-2pm in the Jesus Chapel – Sacrament of Reconciliation and anointing and the laying on of hands will be available. 3.15pm Choral Evensong, followed by a visit to the Shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury. The day concludes at 4pm. There will be opportunities for small groups and individuals to visit different places in the cathedral associated with significant figures in Anglican history. For those travelling by train, the high speed train at 08.40hrs from St Pancras is recommended. New Cathedral Café for food. Please register on the Anglican Catholic Future website or let Fr. Michael Bowie know that you would like to take part.

WORSHIP NEXT SUNDAY 18 MAY
Fifth Sunday of Easter
PLEASE NOTE: High Mass and Evensong & Benediction feature music in the LONDON FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY CHURCH MUSIC (10 – 18 May)  

Charles Andrews, Associate Director of Music will play and the All Saints choir sing contemporary works: at High Mass — Richard Rodney Bennett’s Missa Brevis and the motet A hymne to God the Father by John McCabe. The voluntary is Toccata by Huw Watkins (b. 1976), Professor of Composition at the Royal Academy of Music. This piece was originally written for David Graham and first performed at Saint-Sulpice, Paris in 2012. It has received only a handful of performances so far.  In the evening, the contemporary work is Grayston Ives’ Salve Regina.

HIGH MASS, 11am
Preacher: Fr Michael Bowie
Missa Brevis – Rodney Bennett
A Hymne to God the Father – John McCabe

CHORAL EVENSONG & BENEDICTION at 6pm
Preacher: Fr Julian Browning
The Chichester Service – Berkeley
Salve Regina – Grayston Ives

SPECIAL EVENTS IN MAY

POETRY TEA – Friday 23 May 3pm at Pamela’s.  All welcome.  The subject will be “Hot and Cold”.  To accept or to find out Pamela’s address please speak to Pamela or Sandra in the courtyard or ring Sandra on 020 7637 8456 and leave a message with your name and phone number.  Please book early to avoid disappointment.  Cost £6 towards the All Saints Restoration Fund.

WALSINGHAM NATIONAL PILGRIMAGE – Bank Holiday Monday 26 May
All Saints is running a coach once again to the Walsingham National Pilgrimage – with a Concelebrated Mass in the Abbey Grounds, Sermon (Preacher: Mother Mary Luke CHC), Procession round the Village, and Benediction in the Shrine Gardens. This has always been a day to enjoy and a powerful witness to the Christian faith. The total cost will be about £20. Please speak to Ross Buchanan (Tel: 020 7221 1312) if you would like to know more or reserve a place on the coach.

ASCENSION DAY at ALL SAINTS – Thursday 29 May at 6.30pm – HIGH MASS – Preacher: Prebendary Alan Moses, Mass Setting: Missa ‘Ascendo ad Patrem – Palestrina and Anthem: Ascendit Deus – Philips  

SPECIAL EVENTS IN JUNE at All Saints and Elsewhere

ALL SAINTS PARISH RETREAT – Friday 30 May to Sunday 1 June 2014
This year’s Retreat is conducted by Father Julian Browning.

CHURCH OF THE ANNUNCIATION, Bryanston Street, nr. Marble Arch, London W1H 7AH – Saturday 7 June 2014 at 7pm – Music in Honour of Our Lady A Concert for the Centenary of The Church of the Annunciation 1914 – 2014 to include SPEM IN ALIUM – THOMAS TALLIS, the famous 40-part motet. Together with plainchant and works by Lassus, Palestrina, Rachmaninov, Fizi and Gorecki. Performed jointly by ExColl, a choir of former Cambridge Choral Scholars & The Annunciation Singers under the direction of Christopher Saward and Simon Lovell-Jones. Please take your seat by 6.50pm. Tickets £20 to include a glass of wine. Available on the door or from www.excoll.org.uk. NB. ExColl is also singing at the celebration of the
Mass of Pentecost at The Annunciation on Sunday 8 June at 10.30am.

SPECIAL EVENTS IN JULY

ALL SAINTS PARISH PILGRIMAGE TO WALSINGHAM (Friday 18 July to Sunday 20 July) 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 on Tel: 020 7221 1312.

NOTICES

LENT APPEAL 2014
We are delighted to announce that a few more contributions came in for the Lent Appeal 2014 which (with associated Gift Aid) raised £2,205, taking the total even further up on the amount raised in 2013. Thank you to everyone who so generously contributed.

ALL SAINTS RESTORATION – Lighting & Electrical Renewal Update
The display of our proposals for this Restoration Project continues in the Baptistery. We have now received approval to proceed with this essential work in our Grade 1 Listed Church, but must secure all the funds to go ahead. We are delighted to announce that we have now raised £215,000 (86% of target), but still have a further £35,000 to find to match the budget figure. While we are approaching Trusts and other Grant-giving bodies for the short-fall, if there is anyone who has not yet contributed, please do so via the Parish Office (with Gift Aid wherever possible) with cheques made payable to ALL SAINTS CHURCH RESTORATION APPEAL. Thank you to everyone who has already contributed donations large and small; we are extremely grateful. With such extraordinary support for this much needed restoration project, we are confident that we will reach that target in time to begin the works later this year – hopefully in July. Preparations continue to advance each week, with the Butterfield designed lighting fittings now commissioned and in construction at the blacksmiths and the works’ contract tender ready to be issued.

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)

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.