Lent Oasis

We enjoyed another ‘Oasis’ time of quiet scripture reflection, prayer and practical art at St Martin-in-the-Fields this afternoon. Art materials were available for us to explore, play with colour and be creative through collage, painting, drawing or writing. The 'Oasis' time began with Lectio Divina and imaginative contemplation of Mark 10. 46 - 52.

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Gregory Porter - He Looked Beyond All My Faults.

Lent Oasis

Lent Oasis, Sunday 18 March, 2.00-4.00pm, George Richards & Austen Williams Rooms, St Martin-in-the-Fields

This ‘Oasis’ time will include quiet scripture reflection, prayer and practical art. Art materials will be available for you to explore, play with colour and be creative through collage, painting, drawing or writing. All are very welcome. Please let Helena Tarrant know if you wish to come – tel: 020 7766 1100 or email: helena.tarrant@smitf.org.

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The Brilliance - Yahweh.

Holy Week & Easter at St Martin-in-the-Fields

This Sunday at St Martin-in-the-Fields we mark the beginning of Holy Week with a Palm Sunday procession, led by a donkey, with the Chalk Farm Salvation Army Band and the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields. We meet at the steps behind Admiralty Arch near the British Council building where the procession begins at 9.45am. For those who are not joining the procession the service in church begins as usual at 10am, when we greet the arrival of the procession and together we experience a dramatised reading of the Passion Gospel led by members from the St Martin’s community.

Lent Oasis, Sunday 9 April, 2.00-4.00pm, George Richards and Austen Williams Rooms

Another ‘Oasis’ time of quiet scripture reflection, prayer and practical art. Art materials will be available for you to explore, play with colour and be creative through collage, painting, drawing or writing.

Download the full flyer for Holy Week and Easter at St Martin-in-the-Fields 2017

Sunday 9 April – Palm Sunday

8.00am: Holy Communion (BCP)

9.45am: Palm Sunday Procession

We meet at the corner of St James’s Park near Admiralty Arch. Join the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields and the Salvation Army Band for a procession with palms, led by a donkey, into church.

10.00am: Eucharist

With the reading of the Passion Gospel

1.00pm: Service in Mandarin

2.15pm: Service in Cantonese

5.00pm: From Creation to Salvation

A powerful service of readings and music as we enter into Holy Week, telling the story of salvation, with the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

7.00pm: Compline with Time to Heal

Monday 10 April – Holy Week

8.30am: Morning Prayer

1.15pm: Holy Communion (DSC)

4.30pm: Choral Evensong

7.00pm: Crosslight: A Passion Play
Presented by Riding Lights Theatre Company

This play draws us into the dramatic events of Christ’s Passion and into the experience of one disciple who failed, despite everything he believed so passionately. It’s “a fascinating psychological drama,” and is suitable for adults and young people aged 12 and older.

Tickets: £10 (£5 students)
Available here

Tuesday 11 April – Holy Week

8.30am: Morning Prayer

1.15pm: Holy Communion (DSC)

6.00pm: Holy Communion with homily (DSC)

Wednesday 12 April – Holy Week

8.30am: Morning Prayer

1.00pm: Choral Eucharist

6.30pm: Bread For the World in Holy Week

Thursday 13 April – Maundy Thursday

8.30am: Morning Prayer

1.00pm: Great Sacred Music

Join us to mark Maundy Thursday, as the clergy and St Martin’s Voices present an exploration of Duruflé’s Requiem.

6.30pm: Maundy Thursday Liturgy with foot washing. The silent vigil of the watch follows until 10.00pm. Preacher: Revd Richard Carter

Friday 14 April – Good Friday
8.30am: Morning Prayer

10.00am: Good Friday Service for All Ages

12noon-3.00pm: The Three Hours
Revd Professor Ben Quash, Professor of Christianity and the Arts, Kings College London, is the preacher in this service of reflections on the passion of Christ. With the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields.

12noon and 3.15pm: The Passion of Jesus – free open air play by cast from the Wintershall Estate in Trafalgar Square

7.30pm: Bach St John Passion by Candlelight

Come and see Bach’s dramatic and emotional St John Passion performed by St Martin’s Chorus and the Brandenburg Sinfonia led by conductor Andrew Earis.

Tickets: £26 £22 £18 £15 £9
Available here

Saturday 15 April – Holy Saturday

9.00am: Morning Prayer

Sunday 16 April – Easter Day

5.30am: The Easter Vigil, the lighting of the new fire and the First Eucharist of Easter

8.00am: Holy Communion (BCP)

10.00am: Easter Eucharist

Preacher: Revd Dr Sam Wells with the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields

1.00pm: Service in Mandarin

2.15pm: Service in Cantonese

5.00pm: Choral Evensong with the Choir of St Martin-in-the-Fields

6.30-7.30pm: Allegri Miserere by Candlelight

St Martin’s Voices perform a selection of poignant music for Passiontide, including the beautiful Allegri Miserere and Tallis’s Lamentations of Jeremiah, written especially for Tenebrae in the 16th century.

Tickets: £16 £12 £7
Available here

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Thomas Tallis - Lamentations Of Jeremiah.

Creativity & Reflection: Lent Oasis & Silent Retreat

We enjoyed a great time of creativity and reflection at St Martin-in-the-Fields today in our Lent Oasis. We shared a time of quiet scriptural reflection and practical art. For our reflection we used Lectio Divina to look at Psalm 27. We then utilised a wide range of art and craft materials to respond creatively to this Psalm.

There will be more creativity and reflection at the Silent Retreat we will share at the Retreat House, Pleshey next weekend. In this retreat we will be exploring through art the theme from the Christmas Appeal in relation to prayer, inspired by Simone Weil’s words: “Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love. Absolutely unmixed attention is prayer.”

The things we pay attention to are our life experiences: people, creation, events, emotions, absence and mystery. These themes will lead us through the retreat as we seek to pay attention to God, to the world and one another.

How we do that is inspired by our faithful living out of the Gospel in the world in the spirit of Philippians: "Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." Philippians 4.8

The retreat is for members of the St Martin-in-the-Fields and St Stephen Walbrook communities. The retreat and reflections will be led by Revd Katherine Hedderly and myself.

The Retreat House at Pleshey, situated a few miles from Chelmsford, was established in 1909 as a House of Prayer, and is now the Diocesan Retreat Centre for the Chelmsford Diocese. The spiritual writer and spiritual director Evelyn Underhill led many retreats here and called it a place of peace and stillness where we can come into the presence of God and rediscover the power of his love.

The object of the weekend is to provide a place of prayer, space and quiet reflection, to be used as best suits each person, set in the context of the shared experience of reflections, art, worship, prayer, and relaxation. We simply hold the ‘silence’ as a gift for one another.

The structure of the weekend is as follows. Arrive at the Retreat House on Friday night in time to meet and chat to each other before and over supper. After supper there will be an introduction to the weekend, followed by a welcome liturgy. We shall then enter into silence, interspersed with talks, reflective services and free time over the weekend. Silence will end with the Sunday morning Eucharist, and we follow this with lunch together, before making our way home.

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Adrian Snell - Psalm 27.