The Parish of Acton ST MARY’S and ALL SAINTS Rector The Revd Nick Jones 020 8992 8876 020 8993 0422 (parish office) [email protected] Twitter: @georgenewbrook Associate Rector The Revd Dean Ayres 020 8992 9384 [email protected] The Acorn Curate The Revd Mary Spredbury 020 8995 8879 [email protected] Facebook (www.facebook.com/stmaryacton). Churchwardens Yvonne Kisiedu 020 8248 4891 Vacancy Other Church Officers PCC Secretary: Janet Coker Treasurer: Elizabeth Simpson Stewardship Secretary: Phyllis Kwan December 2020 Parish Secretary: Janet Coker Telephone: 020 8993 0422 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.stmaryacton.org.uk Registered charity no. 1130252 The Parish Office remains closed at present ‘An inclusive and progressive Christian community at the heart of Acton reimagining our faith for the 21st century’ The magazine is edited by Alan McCallum Items for inclusion in the December edition should be sent by email to [email protected] by 19th December Services at St Mary’s Volume 24 No.12 CONTENTS Sunday 8am Holy Communion 10.30am All Age Eucharist Page with Junior Church From the Rector 5 Christmas 2020 6 Thursday 11am Giving to the Church 7 The London Kalender 8 Midweek Communion Ealing Foodbank 12 This short service without music is very suitable for those still Daily Readings for December 13 anxious about being in large crowds as well as those John Perryn 14 still working at home. Christmas Trees 15 Our Monthly Giving Project 17 St Mary’s is open for personal prayer and Some Diary Dates for December 18 reflection A prayer for all those affected by coronavirus 18 Monday to Wednesday, Friday and Saturday 10.0am to 11.00am Do come along as you are able. Please wear a face covering and ensure you follow the social distancing guidelines 4 From the Rector CHRISTMAS 2020 Dear friends Advent has begun – not simply the countdown to Christmas, but the start of the Christian New Year. Advent is a holy season in which we connect again with our inconsolable longing, as CS Lewis called it, our yearning for the One who is to come and is also, mysteriously, the One who has come already, It will be a very different sort of Christmas this year! Rather than come as child, come as fellow-sufferer, come as Saviour, and yet whose simply scaling down what we would normally do because of Coronavirus, coming, already achieved, we hold at bay from ourselves, so that we have we have made bold and imaginative plans. to learn afresh each year, even each day, how to let him come to us We will have a joint programme with Oaktree Anglican Fellowship again. as we look to a future where the two are one, as well as helping them out One of the traditions we follow at St Mary’s here in Acton during at a time when their building is too small for all those wishing to gather. the season of Advent is the lighting of this Advent wreath. One candle a week, representing between them the whole Bible story climaxing with the Saturday 19 December, 3.15pm coming of Jesus himself on Christmas Day. Carols and Readings around the Tree (outside the front of St Mary’s) In the first centuries the Church had a beautiful custom of praying to include distribution of bags for Christingle at Home and the Blessing of seven great prayers calling afresh on Christ to come, calling him by the the Crib mysterious titles he has in Isaiah, calling to him; O Wisdom. O Root! O Sunday 20 December, 4.30pm Key O Light! come to us! They’re called the “Great O” Antiphons. Carol Service (organised by Oaktree – booking essential) Malcolm Guite, the contemporary British poet and priest based in Cambridge has written a modern sonnet for each antiphon – as he says Christmas Eve, 9.15pm (organised by St Mary’s/All Saints) “revoicing them for our own age now, but preserving the heart of each, Midnight at Bethlehem which is a prayer for Christ’s Advent for his coming, now in us, and at the the first Eucharist of Christmas, coinciding with Christmas at Bethlehem end of time, in and for all.” I’ll be introducing and reading one of these sonnets in my Friday morning Poem of the Week slot at 9am on Facebook Christmas Day – www.facebook.com/stmaryacton. You can catch up later if you don’t 8am Traditional Christmas Communion make it live – or simply search out Malcolm’s sonnets for yourself. (organised by St Mary’s/All Saints) 9.30am All Age Christmas Eucharist (organised by St Mary’s/All Wishing you God’s love and peace in these uncertain times Saints) 10.30am Christmas Worship (organised by Oaktree) Sunday 27 December (organised jointly) 10.30am Holy Communion (no service at 8am) 5 6 If you use the online giving page and are able to complete the Gift Aid declaration then your donation will be increased by 25%. If you prefer you can make donation directly to our bank account at Barclays 20-92-60 Account no. 30116521 Please use your name as a reference. Thank you for your support at this difficult time. Giving to the Church The London Kalender These are anxious times for all of us and that includes our personal finances. Until recently we had been unable to hold church services and we are only just starting to let out our hall. Although our 16th December - Thomas Byard (Tubby) Clayton, Priest, Founder of church house has recently been let we have lost several months’ income Toc H, 1972 and currently, both the Language School in the office block next to St Philip Thomas Byard Clayton, always affectionately known as Mary’s and the Nursery at All Saints, are struggling to pay us. As a result Tubby Clayton, was born in December 1885 to English parents in we have seen a heavy decline in our income and will make a substantial Australia. He came to London when aged two and was subsequently loss this year. Please consider if you are able to make a donation tor to educated at St Paul’s School and Exeter College Oxford where he gained increase your regular giving. Every little really does help at a time like a first class degree in Theology. He was ordained in 1910 and served his this. So, only if you are able, please: title at St Mary, Portsea. • join our Parish Giving Scheme or transfer to it The First World War changed his course very considerably. He • increase the amount you are regularly giving through the became an army chaplain and was posted to Flanders where with his Parish Giving Scheme or Standing Order senior colleague The Reverend Neville Talbot established a rest house for • Make a one off donation as you can via this link or QR soldiers at Peperinge in Belgium. It was called Talbot House in memory https://givealittle.co/campaigns/97b6a1f3-1d62-4b43- of Neville’s younger brother Gilbert, who was killed in Hooge to the east of 80a1753222745d3a 7 8 Ypres, in July 1915. Talbot House was known universally at Toc H being charities connected with the Church of England, the relief of the poor, the signal terminology for TH. The spirit of this international Christian children and animals. She founded the National Society for the movement which was fostered here became known as the four points of prevention of cruelty to Children in 1883 and endowed Victoria Park for the Toc H Compass: Friendship (to love widely); Service (to build bravely); the benefit of those living in the East End of London. Fair-mindedness (to think fairly) and The Kingdom of God (to witness In recognition of her work Queen Victoria in 1871 conferred a humbly). peerage on her under the title Baroness Burdett-Coutts of Highgate and After the war, whilst remaining involved with Toc H, Philip Clayton Brookfield. On 12th February 1881 the Baroness married William Lehman became vicar of All Hallows by the Tower where he stayed for forty years. Ashmead-Bartlett, aged 27, who was a Member of Parliament for His work also involved the East End of London especially after the Blitz, Westminster and her secretary. He was of American birth, his when All Hallows was severely damaged. Also, during the Second World grandparents having been British subjects, and he assumed by Royal War, he was chaplain to a tanker fleet. He then spent much time raising licence the surname Burdett-Coutts, but he was not called Baron. The funds to restore the church and he assisted in raising funds to support age difference caused a stir at the time, but it was a very happy union, those impoverished nearby. On retirement in 1962 he continued to although without children. promote the work of Toc H. He died on this day in 1972. He has been She died on this day in 1906 of acute bronchitis. Her body lay in acclaimed as one of the most charismatic and influential priests state at her house and 30,000 people paid their respects. The burial took of the twentieth century. He became a Companion of Honour and was place at Westminster Abbey on 5th January 1907 attended by a vast awarded the Military Cross. congregation. Near the west door in the nave of the Abbey is a simple Source: A Fool for Thy Feast: The Life and times of Tubby Clayton, 1885-1972, Linda Parker, Hellion gravestone reading "BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS 1814-1906". and Co ltd, West Midlands 2015 WESTMINSTER ABBEY WEBSITE ‘Tubby’ Clayton 30th Angela Georgina Burdett-Coutts, Social Reformer, 1906 Angela Burdett-Coutts, a great Victorian philanthropist, was born in Angela Burdett-Coutts st Piccadilly, London on 21 April 1814, the youngest of six children of Sir nd Francis Burdett (1770-1844), politician, and Sophia, daughter of the 22 John Ninian Comper, Church Architect, 1960 banker Thomas Coutts.