Snts 12 Dec 05

All Saints Parish Paper MARGARET STREET, LONDON W.1 DECEMBER 2005 £1.00 VICAR’S LETTER The first lesson for the Eve of All Saints is the same disc reveals something of the that great passage from Ecclesiasticus influence of the Russian composer on the which begins, “Let us now praise famous English. Until recently, this was the only men”. Among those to be praised are those requiem in the choir’s repertoire. Given that who “composed musical tunes”. I took there are a number of excellent settings this as the text for my introductions before available we have introduced a number of the sermon on a couple of occasions. alternatives but this year Vale returned on All Souls Day. Dr Vale’s other great Here at All Saints, where music plays memorial is of course the plainsong All such a central rôle in our worship of God Saints Psalter which we use at Evensong. and celebration of the Christian faith, this is an appropriate thanksgiving at any time The richness of the living tradition of but at our Festival this year it seemed composition here is a testimony both to the particularly apt. Not only were we singing devotion and skill of the individuals music from the great repertoire of the concerned and to the depth of the Church’s musical tradition, we also had worshipping life which inspires it. Part of compositions by the musicians of this our worship is that music which lifts us to place, past and present. heaven as we listen. Another part is that which lifts our hearts as we sing. Clear On the Eve of All Saints, we had Dr responses and enthusiastic hymn-singing Harry Bramma’s setting of a passage from are a central part of our worship; a making the Wisdom of Solomon, “The souls of the our own of scripture, liturgy and hymnody righteous are in the hands of God”. On so that they form and inform us. As we say All Saints Day we had Norman Caplin’s and sing words over and over again, they “Missa Omnium Sanctorum” with the become part of us. This is not just a matter newly-completed Credo being sung for the of making as much noise as possible. On first time. Then on All Souls’ Day we had All Saints Day congregation, choir and music from an earlier generation: Dr organ can lift the roof with “For all the Walter Vale’s “Requiem”. This is to be saints” and “Ye watchers and ye holy ones” found on the choir’s new CD along with but on All Souls Day there is a quieter and the Rachmaninov Mass which Vale adapted more contemplative mood. We have very for the Anglican liturgy. Hearing them on little organ music and sing all but the final 1 hymn of resurrection hope unaccompanied. too are no solitary exercise on the part of As in Advent and Lent, this gives a more the preacher. Preachers do have to put in reflective mood which can help us in the hours of preparation if their labour is listening both to the words and to each to bear fruit. There is no avoiding that by other. A congregation which knows how to praying for inspiration on the way up the pray liturgically is one in which one voice pulpit steps. Preachers have to begin with does not drown out others but sings and the text and with commentaries on it. Then prays together rather than individual- having explored the text in this way, they istically. Listening attentively to other have to ponder and ruminate on it, praying people in church is good practice for it until it becomes part of them, allowing it listening to them out of it. to speak its message to our situation. This is the business of hours, days and weeks. It Ecclesiasticus also calls us to sing the also involves reflecting on life’s events, praises of those “who spoke in prophetic great and small, on the language and images oracles… they were wise in their words of the culture in which we live as well as of instruction”. It is often said that that of the ancient setting of Scripture. This evangelicals can preach but catholics can’t; is the work of a lifetime. indeed that we are not really interested in preaching. There are places, I know, where The preparation of a sermon involves a the 5 minute sermonette endures, to the lot of solitary labour, sometimes into the shame of preachers and the detriment of small hours. But it is not really an hearers, but anyone who worships at All individualistic exercise. The preacher’s Saints, whether at Festival time or on work is done in relationship with God and ordinary Sundays, knows that is not true with the great tradition of those who have here. It is true that we combine Word and studied and preached before. And when it Sacrament in our worship, but that is not comes to the time to preach, it is done in the same as saying that we devalue the relationship with the congregation. Any Word: Word is fulfilled in Sacrament. Once preacher will tell you that they experience again our Festival preachers served us very a real difference when preaching to a well and demonstrated the truth of this. We congregation which is attentive and are grateful to them for taking time in the expectant rather than one which has midst of demanding ministries to preach for minimal expectations because it has never us. Their sermons will appear in the Parish been taken seriously, or seems to compose Paper over the next few months. We were itself to sleep before the sermon has even sorry that Fr Alan Gyle from St Paul’s in begun! It is possible to wake a congregation Knightsbridge was prevented from from its slumbers but it can be hard work. preaching on All Souls Day by changed Fr Gaskell recalls that when he was here arrangements at a conference in the United as a curate, one member of the congregation States where he was lecturing. I hope that used to say to him after every sermon he he will be able to be with us next year. preached: “So many minutes this time”. A congregation whose only interest in Just as sacraments do not work by magic sermons is how soon they will be over, is but have to be received in faith, sermons not likely to encourage good preaching; nor 2 is it likely to grow in the faith. We do live Fr John Cullen, who was Director of the in the age of the sound-bite, of the brief Institute of Christian Studies here, was attention span, and preachers have to live instituted as Vicar of St John’s, Palmers with that. However, it is part of the Green, on Monday November 14th. discipline, the discipleship, of a Christian congregation, to rediscover and practice the Baptism dying art of attentive listening. We can do Felix Stanley Thomas Wright was it, even if many have forgotten or never baptised at High Mass on Sunday October learned how. It is of benefit not only to 21st. ourselves but to newcomers and visitors who worship with us. Halloween Yours in Christ, Fr Alan was interviewed on Premier Radio Alan Moses about Halloween. You can find something of what he said in his All Souls Day sermon PARISH NOTES in this issue. At least one person heard the broadcast and came to Evensong that night Fr John Gaskell as a result. High Mass on Festival Sunday gave us the Some Church History opportunity to congratulate Fr Gaskell on being awarded the Cross of St Augustine Our archdeacon, Dr William Jacob, is a by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The distinguished church historian. He gave a Archbishop’s remarks at the award lecture recently, which a number of us ceremony in Lambeth Palace can be read attended, for the Anglo-Catholic History in this issue. Society. His subject was “Being High Church in the early 18th Century”. Just St Luke’s Hospital for the Clergy as many evangelical Christians seem to assume that nothing of worth happened Fr Alan and Theresa have also been to between the close of the New Testament Lambeth Palace; not to receive an award and the Evangelical Revival, so there is a but to attend a reception for the consultants tendency among those who draw their who give their services to the hospital free inspiration from the Oxford Movement of of charge. The reception took place in the the 19th century to assume that all before guardroom which is much grander than it was a wasteland. This was far from being sounds. An array of past archbishops the case as Doctor Jacob demonstrated with looked down upon us as we consumed wine evidence of the daily worship in London and canapés and chatted happily. churches, the building and decoration of new churches, by no means the “preaching Fr Martin Lawrence, formerly a member boxes” they are often labelled, and the of our choir, was licensed as Priest-in- wealth of devotional literature and Charge of All Saints, the Chase, Cranham, societies. in the diocese of Chelmsford on October 20th. 3 Fr Nicholas Davis, a classmate of Fr Ivan’s pauses during which the people were left at Mirfield, took us through some of the to pray by themselves using devotional arcane corridors of Anglo-Catholic worship manuals. in his talk on The Anglican Missals. In the Book of Common Prayer, Archbishop Much of this work was done in a “private Cranmer undertook a deliberate simpli- enterprise” and sometimes eccentric way fication of the Church’s rites.

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