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This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast

Music: Lord I Lift Your Name on High (Graham Kendrick): Debra Eden – Steel Pan

ÌýLeader: Fr Philip Corbett

Good morning and welcome to Sunday Worship this morning from All Saints Notting Hill in London. I’m Father Philip Corbett and it’s my deep joy and privilege to be the Vicar here. The Church of All Saints has been serving our community for the last 160 years. Situated in the heart of North Kensington just a short walk from the Portobello Road market we are a congregation dedicated to service of our neighbours. We gather today for worship to give thanks and praise to Almighty God and to celebrate the wonderful heritage of Carnival.

Leader: Fr Philip Corbett

All Saints hosts many different music groups throughout an ordinary week and this Carnival Weekend we are delighted that one of these groups the London International Gospel Choir is with us today to help lead our worship.

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Music: To God Be The Glory: London International Gospel Choir

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Leader: Fr Philip Corbett

In a few hours the streets around here will be thronged with party goers and revellers as they gather for the annual Notting Hill Carnival. ÌýThe Carnival began in 1966 and is a wonderful celebration of Caribbean culture. ÌýAll Saints Church sits at the centre of the original Carnival route and many of our congregation were among the first proponents of Carnival. ÌýIt’s an opportunity to come together to celebrate and rejoice in our unity and diversity. Over the two day festival All Saints will be open as a place of prayer, care, and respite for anyone who needs it. Very often people simply wander in off the street and discover a warm welcome and if need be a listening ear.

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Opening Prayer: Ross Buchanan

God of might, giver of every good gift, put into our hearts the love of your name, so that, by deepening our sense of reverence, and, by your watchful care, keep safe what you have nurtured. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. AmenÌýÌý

Leader: Fr Philip Corbett

We hear now from two members of our congregation Allyson Williams MBE and Marcia Haynes about the origins of the festival and the role our church and its members play in the celebrations. Ìý

AllysonÌý

I was born and bred in Trinidad and Tobago and so it's always been part of our life once a year and my husband was one of the founding members. The carnival was started by a group of Trinidadians. When the slaves were emancipated and they used to have the celebrations with their masters, they couldn't do it openly so they used to mock them and create costumes that made them feel more like their own ancestors. And so the costumes mean quite a lot, and re-enacting what happened during slavery means us giving thanks and praise and saying how much we appreciate the freedom that they acquired for us. Ìý

MarciaÌý

Within this church it’s particularly important because this is where Carnival used to be blessed on the Piazza in front of the church before it started. Father would pray for a safe carnival and everyone to be joyous. I see God in the carnival, well anytime people come together, IÌýsense God in them. Ìý

The church is open on Carnival weekend, it's somewhere where people can come and sit with their thoughts so that they have some kind of religious feeling, feeling God in there.Ìý

AllysonÌý

Carnival is linked to the church and the churches calendar. The French and the Italians and the Spanish who brought the slaves to the Caribbean had huge celebrations after Christmas up until Ash Wednesday, which is the start of the Lent season. They had wild parties and masquerade balls, different types of concerts. The word itself means farewell to the flesh.Ìý

Claudia Jones broughtÌýthe idea of Carnival to London because she wanted to unite the community after the race riots of 1950. She wanted to replicate the Trinidad Carnival and follow the church calendar and have it in February or March, but it was impossible in England because it was winter, of course.Ìý

MarciaÌý

My faith in the carnival celebrations is to make people happy, ensure everyone has eaten, everyone had something to drink, everyone safe. I'm making sure that I show them what my faith means to me by respecting them, speaking to them properly, that kind of thing.Ìý

AllysonÌý

I think my faith allows me to give thanks for the rich heritage that we inherited, the sacrifices we have to continue to remember and to celebrate what was left for us by our ancestors.Ìý

ÌýMusic:Ìý

ÌýLeader: Fr Philip Corbett

Our first reading today comes from the Epistle to the Hebrews. The author speaks about the joy of Heaven and the coming together in celebration and rejoicing before the throne of God.

It’s read by Alexandre Grondin.

READING: Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24

18ÌýWhat you have come to is nothing known to the senses: not a blazing fire, or gloom or total darkness, or a storm;

19Ìýor trumpet-blast or the sound of a voice speaking which made everyone that heard it beg that no more should be said to them.

22ÌýBut what you have come to is Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenlyÌýÌýwhere the millions ofÌýÌýhave gathered for the festival,

23Ìýwith the whole Church ofÌýÌýsons, enrolled as citizens of heaven. You have come toÌýÌýhimself, the supreme Judge, and to the spirits of the upright who have been made perfect;

24Ìýand to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to purifying blood which pleads more insistently than Abel's.

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Music: Joyful, Joyful: London International Gospel Choir

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Leader: Fr Philip Corbett

At the centre of our life as a parish is a sense of service and welcome. In our reading from St Luke’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us that it is better to serve than to be served and that we should welcome all people concerned only for them and not for what we might gain.Ìý It’s read by Sharon Fergus.

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READING: Gospel,ÌýLuke 14:1, 7-14

1ÌýNow it happened that on aÌýÌýday he had gone to share a meal in the house of one of the leading Pharisees; and they watched him closely.

7ÌýHe then told the guests a parable, because he had noticed how they picked the places of honour. He said this,

8Ìý'When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take your seat in the place of honour. A more distinguishedÌýÌýthan you may have been invited,

9Ìýand theÌýÌýwho invited you both may come and say, "Give up your place to this man." And then, to your embarrassment, youÌýÌýhave to go and take the lowest place.

10ÌýNo; when you are a guest, make your way to the lowest place and sit there, so that, when yourÌýÌýcomes, he may say, "My friend, move up higher." Then, everyone with you at the tableÌýÌýsee you honoured.

11ÌýFor everyone who raises himself upÌýÌýbe humbled, and the one who humbles himselfÌýÌýbe raised up.'

12ÌýThen he said to his host, 'When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relations or rich neighbours, in case they invite you back and so repay you.

13ÌýNo; when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; 14Ìýthen youÌýÌýbe blessed, for they have no means to repay you and so youÌýÌýbe repaid when the upright rise again.’

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SERMON –ÌýRev Les Isaac OBEÌý

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Music: Hold on Change Is Coming: London International Gospel Choir

ÌýMusic:Ìý

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Rosalind Topping

United in the company of all the faithful

and looking for the coming of the kingdom,

let us offer our prayers to God,

the source of all life and holiness.

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Merciful Lord,

strengthen all Christian people by your Holy Spirit,

that we may live as a royal priesthood and a holy nation

to the praise of Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Lord, in your mercy

AllÌýÌýÌýhear our prayer.

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John BlackburneÌý

BlessÌýour bishops and all ministers of your Church,

that by faithful proclamation of your word

we may be built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets

into a holy temple in the Lord.

Lord, in your mercy

AllÌýÌýÌýhear our prayer.

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Rosalind Topping

Empower us by the gift of your holy and life-giving Spirit,

that we may be transformed into the likeness of Christ from glory to

glory. We pray for all come to celebrate at Carnival this weekend, may

this festival be a time of joy and love and a true celebration of all creation.

Lord, in your mercy

AllÌýÌýÌýhear our prayer.

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John BlackburneÌý

Give to the world and its peoples

the peace that comes from above,

that they may find Christ’s way of freedom and life.

In our own community we continue to pray for those still traumatised, injured or bereaved from the Grenfell Tower Fire – less than a mile from here - five years ago in June 2017, that they may know the comfort of your love.

Lord, in your mercy

AllÌýÌýÌýhear our prayer.

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Rosalind Topping

We give you thanks

for the whole company of your saints in glory,

with whom in fellowship we join our prayers and praises;

by your grace may we, like them, be made perfect in your love.

All: Blessing and glory and wisdom,

thanksgiving and honour and power,

be to our God for ever and ever.

Amen.

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John BlackburneÌý

As our Saviour has taught us so we pray:

Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

ÌýMusic:Ìý

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May God,

who kindled the fire of his love in the hearts of the saints,

pour upon you the riches of his grace.

May he give you joy in their fellowship

and a share in their praises.

May he strengthen you to follow them in the way of holiness

and to come to the full radiance of glory.

And the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be among

you and remain with you always. Amen

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Music: I Found the Way: London International Gospel Choir

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