All Saints Day

There are just a few days of the year when I want to be back worshipping at St James, King Street. I make it for Christmas and sometimes for Easter but not for All Saints Day.
I am thankful to be at St John's Roslyn which is certainly more friendly and today was packed with people of all ages, care needed not to fall over young children at coffee, thankful for having raised over $18,000 at the Parish Fair yesterday.

However the final hymn was one of my favourites "For All The Saints". I learned it at St Philip's Eastwood where I worshipped in the early 1960's and we often sang it at Evening Prayer, a service packed with young people, evangelical but Anglican. It has sadly now gone the way of most of Sydney diocese.

Today we only sang 4 verses. I could not help being wistful for St James where it would be the Introit and would need all 8 verses to allow the procession to move 3 times around the church led by the censer, followed by the Cross, then the wardens and the parish banners, the choir and finally the altar party of at least 6 and finally the President wearing his cope.

Of course I only attended St James for 3 years when I finally discovered it amidst the sea of today's Sydney evangelicalism where they would have no idea of a Saint's Day.

I have searched Youtube for a suitable version but there are none with processional choirs sung well with gusto so will have to provide one from Cardiff in St David's Hall and only 4 verses.



Wonderful words of praise set to music by one of my favourite composers, Ralph Vaughan Williams.

And our vicar, Eric has posted the sermon for today.