Latest news

Maintenance work on Kingston bells

The renovation and maintenance work on Kingston’s bells will take place 23 February-27 March. The last major work was done in 1972 when the anti-clockwise ring of 10 bells were rehung and increased to the 12 glorious bells we have today. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was considerable rivalry between towers, and the fact that Kingston had a ring of 10 bells by the mid eighteenth century suggests that the town and parish church had considerable importance.

Kingston bells were all cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry and range in age from 1826 to 1972, so this year we are celebrating the 200th anniversary of two of our oldest bells (bell 8 and 9).

We now need to carry out some essential maintenance work to ensure the bells and fittings are fit for the next 50 years. This will be carried out by Nicholson Engineering, our preferred bell maintenance company. The work being carried out includes:

• Replacement of ‘gudgeons’ (bearing supports) on the bell 11

• Replacement of ball bearings (which the bells swing on) on all 12 bells

• Refurbishment of all 12 clappers (these hang inside the bell and strike it)

• Repainting the bell frame and fittings.

During the 5-6 weeks of silence, our ringers will be visiting other towers, including St Mary’s Hampton and All Hallows Twickenham.

The bellringers are grateful for all the help they have received in raising the funds for cost of the project. Join us for a special service of rededication on Sunday 19 April, 9:30am. The bellringers are baking for the occasion!

Paul Flavell

Tower Captain

“Come and See” Nurture Courses

We have an exciting programme of courses and discussion groups lined up for January-June for people of all stages of faith.   Please look out for leaflets with full details.

How to understand the Bible course 21st, 28th Jan and 4th Feb 6.30-7.45pm

Please join us for a personal overview of the Bible by Revd Joe Moffatt, with contributions from clergy colleagues who will share their top tips.

Valentines Concert

Join us for an early evening of romantic music by candlelight, set at tables in the Nave area.
The programme will include music by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Gaubert, Schumann and Mozart from the very popular performers Debbie Davis (Flute), Mary Mundy (Cello), David Syrus (Piano) and John Payne (Clarinet).

Doors open at 5pm with a drink on arrival included in the £15 ticket price.
Guests will then be asked to take a seat ready for the performance to begin at 5.30pm

“Small plates” of Italian antipasti will be served to the tables (for those who have chosen that option on the ticket booking).

There will be a 15 minute interval and short pauses between each piece to allow for orders to be taken at tables from our licensed bar

In total, there will be 1 hour and 15 minutes worth of music with the performance finishing at around 7.15pm (taking into account the interval and short pauses).

Should you wish to purchase a ticket with Antipasti, please select the £25 ticket option when booking

Invitation to Tender for Christmas Hire of All Saints Kingston Grounds

We would like to invite interested parties to tender a bid for temporary Christmas season hire for a 6–8-week period, annually from 2026.

Please see supporting documents Invitation to Tender & All Saints Site plan with further details.

We would ask you to carefully take note of the bid requirements and closing date.

You are welcome to visit the site at any time if this will help with your proposal, although neither the Vicar, Revd Joe Moffatt or Operations Manager, Jenny Bridges will be available in person (or on-line) without first making an appointment until after the New Year.

Contact: Jenny Bridges via email if you have any questions [email protected]

Please note all bids received will be carefully considered, if we need any additional information, we will contact you.

We anticipate meeting with everyone who has submitted a compelling proposal in February shortly after the closing date.

NB: Jenny will be on leave from 24^th December 2025 until 12^th January 2026 and will respond to any emails on her return. If you have an urgent enquiry which you feel cannot wait, please put ‘URGENT – Tender Bid Question’ in the Subject line of your email and this will be forwarded.

FREE Lunchtime music at All Saints Kingston

We hold free Monday and Friday Lunchtime Recitals at 1.15pm in the Nave.  This popular series of top quality free recitals returns for the spring season with dates below.  For inclusion on the mailing list please email [email protected]

Monday Music

• 26^th January – Galina Umanskaya, piano
• 2^nd February – Luca Luciano, clarinet
• 9^th February – Lavolta Trio, piano trio
• 16^th February – Kings Clarinets
• 23^rd February – Calum Ward, piano
• 2^nd March – Sandra Porter, Mezzo/John Rogers, violin/Emilie Capulet, piano
• 9^th March – Gunyoung Hwang, piano
• 16^th March – Yohei Nakajima, viola

Friday Organ Music

Friday Lunchtime Organ Recitals from 30^th January 1.15pm.  Come and hear our renowned Frobenius organ played by some of the country’s finest organists.

• 30^th January – Peter Stevens, Westminster Cathedral,
• 13^th February – Thomas Allery, the Temple Church
• 6^th March – Seb Gillot, St Mary Magdalene, Richmond,
• 20^th March – Mark Laflin, Kingston Grammar School.

Free to attend with optional retiring collection in support of the musical life of the church.

Twilight Embroidery Talk Event

Enjoy an evening viewing of the 10th Century Kings with a talk on the history of the Saxon Kings and the creation of the embroidery panels.
Fundraising Bar available – enjoy a glass of Prosecco under the gaze of the Kings.

The panels were created by award winning contemporary embroiderer Jacky Puzey, based on an original design by Sophia Pearson. Jacky’s speciality of machine embroidery is further embellished with hand embroidery and beading by Beatrice Mayfield, contemporary hand embroiderer and visiting lecturer at the Royal School of Needlework.

Our embroideries headlined an edition of the national “embroidery magazine”.  Read the article here   Come and see them in person!

For further details, please visit our website Saxon Kings Embroidery Project – All Saints Church

New Archbishop of Canterbury

We were delighted to welcome the Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally DBE as she becomes the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury.

Please pray for the new Archbishop

Read the full announcement from the church of England here.

Read the full announcement from the Diocese of Southwark here.

Athelstan Day Events Thursday 4th September

We were delighted to welcome so many visitors for Thursday’s special 1100 anniversary celebrations of the crowning of King Athelstan, the first king of England, particularly those who journeyed considerable distances to reach us.  The day was a huge success, entirely down to the dedication and work of so many members of our community over several years.  We are grateful to those who took part in the events and the service and the renewed shared Saxon heritage connection with Malmesbury, Tamworth and Oldenberg.

We are particularly grateful to the Very Reverend Professor Sarah Foot, Dean of Christ Church, an expert on the period for her sermon on King Athelstan which you can read in full here or you can watch the full service via the button below.

Please do come along to view the embroideries now that they are unveiled.

Click here to watch a slideshow of pictures of the events

Click here for the souvenir booklet

Click here for the service booklet

Click here for Bishop Christopher, the Bishop of Southwark’s sermon

Click here for Mike Seigel, Kingston Town Crier’s speech

Click here for information about King Athelstan, the first King of a united England, crowned at Kingston Upon Thames on 4th September 925.

Athelstan Address by Tom Holland

We were honoured to welcome national historian and co-host of “the Rest is History” podcast (number one History podcast in the UK) Tom Holland to speak as part of the Athelstan Coronation Anniversary Events.

The engrossing talk was a ticketed event and “sold out” months before the event so if you missed out, we are sorry but you can watch the recording by clicking the button below.

We also welcomed author Professor David Woodman, a specialist in medieval history for a book signing of his new book “The First King of England; Aethelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom”, who believes children should be taught about Aethelstan and the birth of England in schools.  You can read his argument here or read about the book here.

Click here for the souvenir booklet

Click here for information about King Athelstan, the first King of a united England, crowned at Kingston Upon Thames on 4th September 925.

Update on Public Talk – Stories from Israel-Palestine

Over 200 people attended this talk from the Very Reverend Nicholas Papadopulos, Dean of Salisbury with Ruth Valerio from the Embrace the Middle East charity.  Over £550 was raised for EAPPI (Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme for Palestine and Israel) plus £165 from the bar towards church funds.  You can read a synopsis here or donate to EAPPI here.

This talk recording, together with a number of many others may be accessed via our You tube channel @allsaintskingston8231.

All Saints Kingston previously hosted a series of Faith talks which featured a number of well known speakers on a variety of important subjects, including the changing shape of war and artificial intelligence.  Please click here to watch them.

Embroidery Project – June 2025

Panel 1, Edward and Lady Aethelflaed, and Panel 6, Edward the Martyr, are now completed with their stunning beading by artist Beatrice Mayfield and and are with the framers.  Framing involves letting the embroidery hang for 6 weeks before attaching to a bespoke backing to keep every stitch and embellishment exactly in place before putting into the museum quality frame itself.  We are very lucky to have commissioned Janie Lightfoot Textiles (JLT) to perform this essential and very precise work.

The final touches are now being put to the design of Ethelred (known to history as Ethelred the Unready, although “unready” in Saxon times actually referred to his lack of good counsel).  Artist Jacky Puzey will then create two full size samples of specific areas of the design for the embroidery project team to asses before work begins on the full panel itself. – will he be ready for September 4th?

House of Bishops statement on Gaza

Please pray for all those suffering in Gaza.  The House of Bishops have met in York and issued a statement on the war in Gaza which may be read here

We fully support this statement from the House of Bishops.

Annual Report 2024-2025

We are rightly proud of all the amazing services, groups, events and activities that take place in our wonderful church.  We will never have space to mention them all but a snapshot is included in this years annual report, shared at our APCM in May 2025 which you may read by clicking the button below.

You can also read the financial report here.

Squirrel Surprise

Progress with the final embroideries

Members of the Embroidery Project team travelled to artist Jacky Puzey’s Bristol studio to check progress this month.  Edward the Martyr, falling from his magnificent dappled grey horse is complete and awaiting embellishment by beader Beatrice Mayfield and the stunning design for Ethelred the Unready will now have areas worked up as fully embroidered working samples before the full piece is begun.

Embroideries in National Magazine

It’s great to see our embroideries gaining national attention, and justifiably so, they truly are works of amazing design and quality!  The March/April edition of Embroidery Magazine leads with our project on the front page, noting;

“Meet our cover star King Eadwig whose short life story would not have been out of place in the ruthless world of HBO’s @gameofthrones drama. Inside, we bring you the story of seven Saxon kings and @jackypuzey’s incredible eight-year project to portray them in stitch.” 

Did you know that you can be part of this amazing heritage project?  Our “book of names” fundraising appeal allows you to have a name of your choice entered into the book, made by the same artist who has created these embroidered art pieces.  The appeal closes at Easter, so if you want to have your name added, please do so soon by clicking here.

Embroidery magazine is exclusively devoted to all aspects of embroidery and stitched textiles in art, design, craft and textile culture. You can subscribe or purchase a back issue here.

To watch a special short film about the project, please click below.

Seven Saxon Kings

Update – The embroidery of Edward the Elder and his sister Ethelflaed, lady of the Mercians, son and daughter of Alfred the Great, is now completed and being embellished by Beatrice Mayfield, contemporary hand embroiderer and visiting lecturer at the Royal School of Needlework.  Jacky Puzey, award winning contemporary embroidery artist is now working on samples of the next panel; Edward the Martyr which was commissioned after an AMAZING anonymous donation from a local couple to celebrate an important anniversary.

We are now tantalisingly close to securing our fundraising target for Phase 1 of the project and now looking forward to phase 2 which is to create education and interpretation resources explaining the embroideries to visitors.

Our “book of names” appeal closes at Easter, so if you’ve been thinking about having yours or a loved ones name embroidered into the book as a lasting legacy, please do so now before this appeal closes!  This would make a wonderful personal present for anyone with links to Kingston!  To find out more about this, the project and how you and your family can be part of keeping this heritage alive for generations to come, please click here.

Would you like your group to have a guided talk on our embroideries?  We can arrange talks at your groups usual venue or at All Saints Kingston, with our knowledgeable project leaders giving a real insight into the craft and/or historical aspects of the embroideries, including viewing the embroidered samples up close.  This is available for any group signing up to have their name included in our book of names.

This year (2025) is the 1100 anniversary of the coronation of King Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the great and arguably the first King of all England who was crowned right here in Kingston Upon Thames.  Our aim is to have all the Embroideries complete and available to view by this special anniversary, hosting a service to commemorate them.

To watch a special short film about the project, please click below.

Update on Lifting Young Voices Project

Following successful grant applications for vital initial funding from Cathedral Music Trust (CMT) and long-term funding from the Diocese of Southwark, our Lifting Young Voices (LYV) Project will now have the financial security to fully develop.

Freddie Ingles’ and Emma Smellie’s appointments as Choral Trainer Lay Clerks has  enabled the Lifting Young Voices programme to expand into additional local primary schools and we are in the process of recruiting a further Choral Trainer Lay Clerks to reach a projected 8 schools by the end of 2025. 

Our new Assistant Director of Music is scheduled to join All Saints Kingston in the new year to assist David Condry, our Director of Music in the running of our choirs, with our Junior Choir now participating in monthly all-age services allowing us to reintroduce Choral Matins as a monthly sung service with the main choir. 

If you are interested in our Lifting Young Voices Project going into YOUR school, or would like to join one of our choirs, please click here for a booklet giving details or use the main menu to select choir and scroll down to the Lifting Young voices area of the page.

Saxon Fayre 2024

During the Summer, All Saints Kingston was part of the Saxon Fayre that took place in the marketplace and in the grounds and building of All Saints itself.

It was a huge success and we were particularly pleased to showcase our links with the Seven Saxon Kings of England who were crowned right here in Kingston.  Next year is the 1100 anniversary of the crowning of King Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great and arguably the first King of all England, after uniting the kingdoms (something which Alfred the Great had dreamed of but not actually managed to do within his own lifetime).

Next year, Kingston council will host a six month series of events to celebrate this important anniversary and we will be unveiling our full series of life sized contemporary embroideries of each of the seven kings.  Please click here to learn more about our “Seven Saxon King Embroidery Project” including how you can add a name in our embroidered “book of names” as a legacy of your own.  Please click here to lean more about Kingston 2025.

Choir Trip to York Minster

You may have missed our choir singing at services a few weeks ago, but our loss was York Minsters gain as they acted as “guest choir” whilst their normal choir took a holiday break.

The choir sang at 4 services, two of which were recorded and can be viewed here and here

Sung Eucharist Choir particular moments:

5.40, 41.20, 51.50

Choral Evensong choir particular moments:

3.42 (Psalm 141), 9.50, 18.20, 28.50 (Seek him)

Don’t miss the amazing organ pieces at the send of each service from Alan Erdelyi who performed until recently at All Saints.

2023-24 booklet

This gives an oversight on All Saints over the past year, our activities and projects and what we need to do to continue moving forward to ‘fund the vision’ and complete these as well as essential building maintenance.

It is with your continued support and generosity we have managed to achieve so much over the past year and longer. This is not just much needed financial support through regular planned giving and other means, but through volunteering your time. We thank you wholeheartedly for this and hope that you can continue to give generously.

Please consider helping us by making a new or increased pledge, please use the form HERE.

And, if you would like to become a volunteer at All Saints please contact our Comms Manager, Kate Shrimpton here: [email protected]

 Printed Copies are also available in the church.

Diocese of Southwark statement on the Makin report

A review of the Church’s handling of allegations of serious abuse carried out over a period of 40 years by the late John Smyth has been published. The independent learning lessons review was led by Keith Makin.

Please click here to read further.