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Organ Appeal At St Giles we hear sounds from the organ that our predecessors, including Byron, Shelley and John Soane, have heard for more than three hundred years. This historic organ urgently needed sympathetic restoration more>

I am very pleased to be able to tell you that we have appointed a new Associate Rector, Alan Carr. Alan is a very experienced parish priest, and is currently Vicar of West Hoathly and Highbrook in Sussex, but is keen to develop a new ministry in Central London.

Alan has written about himself:

Born in a Salvation Army maternity hospital in Scotland and raised in a south London Church Commissioners' housing estate would naturally lead, you might think, to a life of Christian vocation, but you would be wrong - growing up religion was for other people and church a foreign country. Sunday morning was made for football! University up north came and went and I was in London again, restless, rootless, when God came suddenly and turned me inside out. Within months I was baptised and confirmed (All Saints, Margaret Street) and living in a small lay religious community in Sussex, which in turn led to monastic life in Oxford (the Society of St. John the Evangelist), altogether absorbing eight years of prayer and hospitality. Then love came, with equal suddenness and monastic vows became marriage vows to Suzanne. We lived in four places - Brighton, Monmouth, Lincoln and Rustington on the south coast - and had a child in each - Beatrice, now 26, Ewan, 25, Naomi, 22 and Joseph, 18. It was at Monmouth I realised I must continue my religious vocation all the way to ordination, at Lincoln that the Warden (a certain Bill Jacob, no less) tried to educate me and at Rustington that I served my curacy. Then our journeying ceased (and with it the birth of children) by moving here to West Hoathly where I have spent the past 18 years leading two semi-rural parishes in growth and discipleship (westhoathly.org.uk will show give you a flavour of things). The parishes are full of people who have successfully escaped London and now we find ourselves going back! It has to be God's work yet again. I bring to you a passion to follow the way of Jesus in a very complicated world. I shall count it a privilege to serve among you all.

I am very much looking forward to Alan joining us at the beginning of September. He will be licensed as Associate Rector on Sunday evening 5 September, when we will be keeping St Giles’s Day, by the Bishop of London.

WHITSUNDAY

Customarily all the mainstream churches in Westminster, and St Giles in Holborn, worship together on the evening of Whitsunday, which this year is on 23 May, and cancel their own services. I hope that as many people as possible will go to the united service. However, St Giles will not be closed that evening. We will be offering hospitality to our friends from Asylum. Asylum is an independent fellowship of alternative Christian outreach who meet on Sunday afternoons and evenings at the Intrepid Fox, the pub on the opposite side of the road to the church. Some of their members sometimes come to Sunday Evensong, some of them have joined the Electoral Roll, two couples from Asylum have got married at St Giles, and one of their members is an ordination candidate sponsored from St Giles. Our developing relations with our Christian friends in Asylum contribute to the rich diversity of the expression of Christian faith and practice at St Giles. During the Denmark Street Festival a couple of years ago, and last year on All Saints’ Eve, we offered hospitality to members of Asylum to put on an event in St Giles, and we are doing so again on Whitsunday evening. When they will be putting on Anastasis, which is the Greek word for resurrection. These events bring all sorts of people into church who might never think of setting foot in a church. They are attracted by an explosion of the arts coming together to present Christ and Christianity with a creative, intelligent and thought provoking approach to get people thinking about God in a new way. There will be live music, dancers, and an art slide show, atmospheric sound-scapes, Indian Head Massage, an art exhibition, and more at this powerful event. and an opportunity to be pictured with a live skunk. There will also be the opportunity for prayer and lots of information on understanding Christ for whoever comes. It welcomes all. It will be from 6:30pm to 9:30pm with performances starting from 7:00pm. It fits well, if surprisingly, with the PCC’s Mission Action Plan, to welcome people into St Giles, and to make the Christian faith accessible to people.

Bill Jacob

Tom Davidson and Emma Lambourne who are members of the Sunday Evening voluntary choir are being married at St Giles on Saturday 22 May at 2 pm, and they would be delighted to be joined by members of our congregations to pray and give thanks for this exciting new step in their lives.

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