London's 100 Best Churches

The announcement that the lovely hidden Church of the Assumption in Warwick Street W1 is to become an Ordinariate church has placed it in the spotlight.

The church looks like a row of houses and has always had a discreet entrance since it opened in 1730. It was first an embassy chapel and only became a parish church in 1871.

Much has been made about Blessed John Henry Newman having attended Mass. As a child he was brought just once by his father. This may have been due to the high standard of music.

The church was recently in the news due to unseemly demonstrations outside during Masses attended by gay people. From next month the worshippers will attend Mass at Farm Street instead.

I hope that handing the church to the Ordinariate will not prevent it continuing to be open for prayer with all visitors welcome. Anglican evensong is now likely to be a weekly feature.

It is claimed that the Ordinariate is part of ecumenical progress. This is hard to grasp when the split from Anglicanism without fully joining Rome appears to set up yet another division. It is also a view of Christian unity which was rejected by such inspiring ecumenical pioneers as Spencer Jones and Abbé Paul Couturier in the Thirties.

But if Anglicans and Roman Catholics can continue to pray in Warwick Street there may yet be a way forward. Blessed John Paul said that unity will come in a form we do not yet recognise.

The rectory is a former embassy and will make a lovely residence for whoever is in charge.

The Precious Blood in O’Meara Street, near Borough Market, became Southwark’s Ordinariate church last year. The new parish priest is the former vicar of St Agnes Kennington.

All Hallows on Tower Hill has new opening times:

Monday-Friday 8am-5pm; Saturday 10am-4pm; Sunday 10am-1pm.

But note that on Wednesdays the church does remain open until 6pm when the Taizé service begins.

Longer opening hours will be announced for the summer.

St Mary-le-Bow is closed until Wednesday 2 January, the ninth day of Christmas, but some City churches are staying open.

St Bartholomew-the-Great has a Christmas vigil Mass as early as 12.30pm on Christmas Eve which is handy for those who are working overnight.

The Church re-opens at 11pm for Midnight Mass starting at 11.45pm with blessing of the Crib and procession with choir and trumpets.

At both All Hallows-by-the-Tower and St Stephen Walbrook the 11.30pm Midnight Mass is by candlelight.

Across the river at Southwark Cathedral there is a Building the Crib Service for families at 4pm on Christmas Eve. Doors open at 9.30pm for the 11.30pm Midnight Mass.

Boxing Day is also St Stephen’s Day and the place to be is St Stephen’s Gloucester Road where the Solemn Mass is at 11am.

I was at St Anne & St Anges Church in the City last night for the monthly Bach Vespers.

It was  a wonderful and rare occasion. We ought to remember to experience it and the high standard of music whilst we have the opportunity.

No Bach Vespers in Christmas week so the next will be on Sunday 27 January at 6.30pm. Put it in your new diary.

The Jesuits will hand over the running and administration of the Sacred Heart Church in Wimbledon to the Archdiocese of Southwark in a year’s time.

The announcement was made last Sunday to a stunned congregation.

The Society of Jesus Provincial Fr Dermot Preston has written a letter to the parish and will preach next Sunday.

He said: “To regain a degree of flexibility for response to the new challenges, the British Jesuits will need to hand over a number of our present commitments to other ministers, and I feel that it is right now to start the process of handing-over our Wimbledon parish to the Archdiocese.”

The church built in 1887 on Edge Hill, and a landmark from the railway, was founded by the Jesuits and enjoys a large congregation which includes many influential people.

Tonight Fr Ian Brothwood is being instituted as Vicar of  St Michael and All Angels with St James in Croydon.

Fr Ian’s predecessor and several church members left to join the Ordinariate so this is  a new start for the congregation after  a difficult time.

St Michael’s is  a lovely Pearson  church at the exit to the Whitgift Centre.

The Mass will be celebrated by the Bishop of Edmonton who will find good liturgy and music.

The congregation at All Souls Langham Place, which looks so splendid in all the aerial shots of New Broadcasting House, is praying for the BBC.

There is the first in a series of Pray4BBC sessions at 6.30pm on Thursday. The prayer evening is being led by the Radio 4 Daily Service presenter Andrew Graystone.

Maybe it’s time the service was again broadcast from the BBC’s famous parish church instead of coming from Manchester. Other programmes have been recently relocated back to central London.

Valerie Eliot, widow of poet TS Eliot, died on Friday.

The funeral, sadly private, will be at St Stephen’s Gloucester Road where her husband was churchwarden for a quarter of  a century from 1934.

The Queen visited the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy today to see the new stained glass window which depicts one of her corgis.

The Mail has the best pictures.

The Queen is visiting the Queen’s Chapel of the  Savoy this Thursday, All Saints Day, for the dedication of the Diamond Jubilee window and chapel extension.

Charles Moore has an interesting article about the chapel today in the Telegraph.