All Saints Parish Church

All Saints Parish Church

All Saints’ Church (C of E) in the Diocese of St Albans, is one of Hertfordshire’s most beautiful ancient churches. It was founded in 1215 and many visitors are attracted to it throughout the year, not least to view the tomb of Edmund of Langley, the first Duke of York. However, despite its history, the church seeks to be a modern active church community in the 21st century. It currently has a Mission Action Plan (MAP), focusing on - deepening the spirituality of the congregation, developing its work with children and families, fundraising for church and community, working with community organisations in promoting services for older people and raising awareness of poverty, justice and peace issues. The liturgical tradition is inclusive liberal catholic and a local ministry team is developing the church’s welcome ministry.

Our usual Sunday service is the 9.30am Family Eucharist with Sunday School but, on the third Sunday of the month, we have an All Age Eucharist at 9.30am and Church in the Wild at 11.15am – with coffee served every week in the church hall from about 10.45am.

All Saints is a church in the multi-parish Benefice of Langelei comprising All Saints, Kings Langley, St Mary’s Apsley End, St Benedict’s Bennetts End and Holy Trinity, Leverstock Green. For more information about the benefice visit

www.beneficeoflangelei.org.uk The Benefice office is located at All Saints and the team administrator can be contacted on 01923 266596.

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Dear friends,

Lent begins this coming Ash Wednesday, 18th February, with Team services at 10am at Holy Trinity and 8pm at St Mary's, both including imposition of ashes. All welcome to either service, a reflective start to the Lenten journey. Please see below for the full finalised details of our Lent course and Quiet Day. Our theme for both of these is prayer. I warmly encourage you to come along to the course and the Quiet Day as we seek to go deeper into God.

Later in Lent, we have a Team service on 22nd March at 10.30am at St Benedict's. Last October, all activities at St Benedict's were paused and a new church community has been forming, with the support of the Diocese, the Team and Soul Survivor Watford. Each Wednesday Revd David has been running a group at St Benedict's, including continuing members, to pray, imagine and plan for a new church and new Sunday services. The Team Service on 22nd March is the 'soft launch' of this new service. I really encourage you to come and support St Benedict's at this exciting moment as they re-launch and open the church again to the community.

At our January PCC meeting, we reviewed our Mission Action Plan. One of the key items on this is to develop our work with children and families. I'm really grateful to members of our Children's Team who have been giving thought to this. From March we will have a new pattern of children's provision for the 9.30am service:

• 1st Sundays: Church in the Wild (at 11.15am); no Saints on Sunday, themed activity at the back of church.

• 2nd and 4th Sundays: Saints on Sunday

• 3rd Sundays: All Age Eucharist

Our first All Age Eucharist of this new pattern will be on 15th March, Mothering Sunday. We want this to be a service which is accessible and where everyone feels welcome, so it will be a bit more informal and shorter than our usual 9.30am service. Here's what will be different:

• Three, family-friendly hymns and no Psalm

• One reading before the Gospel

• Interactive Talk and Prayers

• A shorter Eucharistic Prayer, with everyone gathered at the Altar

This is a trial for the rest of this year and we'd really value everyone's support and prayers as we seek to welcome new people, especially families into All Saints.

With every blessing for a Holy Lent,

Fr. James