In a world of restless change and identity crises, the Church's greatest asset is surely its direct connection to the heart of our Country, and at All Saints we reflect the traditional values that have held the Church of England in good stead for many centuries. This is not to say that we are "old-fashioned"; rather we use the language and liturgies of generations who have gone before us to reflect the timelessness of our relationship with God. The majority of our service use the language of the
Book of Common Prayer as their basis, though we look to the Liturgies and Rites common in England before this date for inspiration for Feast Days and Festivals. When our seven-year old Probationer Choristers say for the first time, as our Choristers do almost every day of the week, "Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep" they connect with many generations of boys before them. They may go on from there to sing a Ridout's modern setting of the Canticles in the twelve-note idiom, or a Jazz-inflected anthem by John Dankworth, but at the heart is a connection with something of the eternal. On Sundays we celebrate the Eucharist (sometimes known as The Holy Communion, or the Mass) at 8:00am and 10:30am. The former is a Book of Common Prayer said Service, and the later a traditional form of Common Worship with Prayer Book language and Readings. The Eucharist is also part of our daily worship, at 12:30pm on Weekdays, and this service has its own Choir - the All Saints' Singers - drawn from adult singers who sing in other Parishes, and from those who have no other connection with the Church, who sing on Feast Days. On Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday the Choirs sing Prayer Book Choral Evensong with the 1928 introduction, and concluding with an Anthem. From time-to-time we are also able to sing Choral Matins, which enables us to hear the affirmational words of the Te Deum or the Benedicite, for example, which are rarely heard today. We have our own Kalendar which celebrates the work of local worthies (for example Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the DNA molecule or Malcolm Arnold, composer, both of whom were born in the Town) alongside the Prayer Book and Common Worship Calendars of Saints, and at Evensong we focus on the Saint "of the Day", or else a general theme in the readings.