From the Rector:
We are living in interesting times. Times when political boundaries are being remapped, times when the political Right is trying to camp on the traditional territory of the Left. Politicians, striving for the populist vote, are sowing hatred and division. And as always when politics become so divisive, there is a victim. The victims this time are migrants.
I am pleased to say that the Church of England has waded into this political storm unashamedly and uncompromisingly asserting our Christian duty to care for those vulnerable and oppressed in our society.
Reform UK has become engaged in a war of words with the Church over the party’s plans to deport all asylum seekers who arrive in small boats. The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, called the proposal “isolationist, short-term [and] kneejerk”.
Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, hit back against the Archbishop accusing him of interfering in domestic politics. Tice said, “I enjoy the church, I believe in God. But the role of the archbishop is not actually to interfere with international [migration] policies.”
Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, writing in the weekend press, speaking of the recognised frustration of ordinary people in the UK at the handling of migration, stated that the truth is that the migrant, too, is an ordinary person. “To speak as though these people are anything other than ordinary is to reinforce the violence they have already experienced, the refusal to see them humanly,” he said.
This engagement by the Church in matters of political policy often riles some traditional churchgoers who believe the Church should be above such debates and discussions and should not become involved. I disagree. Christ was a highly political and divisive figure in first century Palestine. If we are to live out his commands to us, we too must be political players. We must put ourselves in the thick of things, and cannot stand aloof and aside from the suffering and political machinations of humanity. We need to be involved in the secular, messy, real world if we are to promote Christ’s kingdom. We must be prepared to sully ourselves with the politics of the earthly kingdom, if we want Christ’s kingdom to come on earth.
With God’s love and blessing,
Fr David
REGULAR CHURCH OPENING AND SERVICE TIMES
The church is open for public worship and private prayer every Monday to Friday from 7.30 am to 5.30 pm, continuing to maintain God’s physical presence in the City of London.
Our regular services are Choral Mass with sermon on Wednesdays at 1.10 pm, and Said Masses on Tuesdays at 8.10 am and 12.10 pm and Thursdays at 12.10 pm.
Choral services are livestreamed on our YouTube channel (accessible from the church website www.botolph.org.uk).
MUSIC AT CHORAL SERVICES IN SEPTEMBER:
Wednesday 3 September
upon the Feast Day of S Gregory the Great
Mass XII plainchant. Ave verum Corpus plainchant. Plain-chant du Premier Kyrie, en taille Couperin
Wednesday 10 September
of the Feast of The Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Missa ‘Quasi cedrus’ Esquivel. Nativitas tua Palestrina. Magnificat in D Dandrieu
Wednesday 17 September
in the week of The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity
Communion Service in E Darke. The Lord’s my Shepherd James Leith Macbeth Bain (‘Brother James’). Prelude in G, BWV 541(i) Bach
Wednesday 24 September
in the week of The Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity
Missa in honorem Sanctissimi Cordis Jesu Ebner. Ave verum Corpus Fauré. Prélude en ut majeur Massenet
MUSICAL EVENTS IN SEPTEMBER:
Orlando Chamber Choir present an all-day early-music workshop on Saturday 6 September from 10.30 to 4.30 in St Botolph’s Church Hall. The workshop is led by Greg Skidmore, one of the UK’s leading consort and choral singers, who was recently appointed Musical Director of the Lacock Scholars. The programme comprises works by Byrd, Gibbons, Ramsey, Tallis, and Weelkes.
The workshop is open to all choral singers but sight-reading skills are a prerequisite. Advance booking is required – to make your booking, and to peruse the sheet music, visit orlandochoir.org.uk/events. Tickets are £25.00. There will be a bring-your-own-picnic lunch near the church – Orlando is renowned for its cakes as well as for its singing!
SATURDAY 20 SEPTEMBER – CHORAL CONCERT
æftersang is one of the UK’s newest vocal ensembles of emerging young artists, and we are delighted that their director Jess Norton Raybould has chosen St Botolph’s for their London debut ‘I saw angels in the garden’, which will take place on Saturday 20 September at 7.30 pm.
Winged messengers, birds in song, and figures half-glimpsed among the leaves… an evening of choral music inspired by the visions of William Blake, who saw angels in his garden. Tracing the delicate thread between heaven and earth, this programme weaves sacred and secular works from the Renaissance to now – where angels walk in gardens and the sacred brushes the everyday. At its heart is Vaughan Williams’ seminal Mass in G minor, alongside partsongs from Scandinavia, French Chansons of the Renaissance, works by contemporary female composers, and the premieres of two commissions by young composers.
Tickets from https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/aeftersang/t-jzelvog
