Rowen William's Visit

5 November was an exciting day for All Saints Church, when Archbishop Rowen Williams came to preside and preach at our 10.30 service. St Paul's within the Walls and the Swedish Church had both closed down for the day so that their parishioners could join us. A combined All Saints-St Paul's choir sang beautifully and Wijnand van de Pol gave us as good an organ performance as we can expect this side of heaven.

Cherry Caldato had done a beautiful job on the flowers and the church had been waxed and polished up for the occasion. It was packed to capacity. Our chaplain Jonathan and our bishop Geoffrey were con-celebrants with the archbishop, while the chancel was filled with ecumenical ecclesiastics in their varied garb. As usual Archdeacon Henoc of the monophysite Eritrean Coptic congregation was our most exotic guest, in his gold bordered cape and white turban.

After the service, everyone went down to the crypt where Sara Brain had organised a huge buffet lunch, served by the youth group identified by their RAY tee-shirts, and many other assorted helpers. Thanks go to Barrie Spicer and Rino Timpanaro for overseeing the setting up and clearing up and to the very many others who put in many hours of hard work to make the day a success.

Bible Study Begins

We began a Friday lunch-time Bible study on 24 October. The subject of the hour-long discussions will be the lessons for the following Sunday. You will find these in the service sheet for the Sunday following, if you want to read them beforehand, but there is no preparation required. We meet from 1 to 2 so that people can get back to work or other activities. We hope that this is also a convenient time for people who come to the noon-time Eucharist on Fridays and wish to stay on for study and fellowship. You should bring a sandwich with you, we'll supply drinks and coffee - and maybe even some brownies when the parish secretary's in good mood.