2023 Calendar
January 2023

Friday 27 January: Quiz Night
7pm for a 7:30pm start

The ever popular St Paul's Quiz Night is back! Questions this year are set by last year;'s winners, the Barker family. Teams make up tables of eight; if you'd like to come but do not have a team let us know and we will find you a table to join! Tables should bring their own supper and the church will provide cutlery, plates and glasses. Please bring all the food and nibbles you will require to fuel your mighty brains! However, we WILL be providing a cash bar for beer, wine and soft drinks and politely request that attendees support this as part of our fundraising efforts for 2023, and don't BYOB! Tickets are £10.00 per person, to be collected on the night. To reserve a table or a seat at a table, please contact sara.m.hodson70@gmail.com

February 2023

Sunday 26th February 11am Bring and Buy Sale

Homemade cakes, chutneys, preserves and other goodies! Please bring contributions and come along and purchase!

March 2023

Sun 19 Mar 10am MOTHERING SUNDAY

10 am Eucharist with flowers for all mothers and carers

Sun 26 March PASSION SUNDAY
10 am Eucharist
Sun 26 March 6pm Evening performance of Stainer's Crucifixion
by St Paul's choir and friends
Sun 10 April PALM SUNDAY
10 am Eucharist

April 2023

Good Friday 7th April
Children's Activities in the Isis rooms, church and garden from 10:30am until noon

Good Friday Service at 12 noon: Canon Julian Reindorp

Easter Sunday 9 April               

10am Parish Eucharist: Canon Julian Reindorp
Please bring bells to make a joyful noise!

May 2023

Sun 28 May PENTECOST SUNDAY

10am Parish Eucharist

June 2023

July 2023

August 2023

September 2023

October 2023

November 2023

Sunday November 12th

Remembrance Sunday: Rev’d Canon Julian Reindorp

December 2023

Advent Sunday 3 December

10am Advent Sunday Service
 

Christmas Eve Friday December 24th 4pm

Family Carol Service 

Christmas Eve Friday December 24th 11.30pm
Midnight Mass

Christmas Day Saturday December 25th

Family Service10am

St Stephens Day Sunday 26 December 
Parish Eucharist Service10am

Events at St Paul's
St Paul's is a vibrant part of the Chiswick community and we are lucky enough to have a large group of musicians both professional and amateur, as well as lots of volunteers who enjoy coming together to sing, play, entertain, fundraise and have fun! To receive a short weekly newsletter with information about our forthcoming events, please contact ceciliathwaites@gmail.com

150 FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
Our 2022 Festival to celebrate 150 years of St Paul's church was a fabulous six weeks of jubilation and joy, fellowship, faith and fun!

SUNDAY 15 MAY 3:30PM AND 6:30PM - HEAR THE PEOPLE SING

The 150 anniversary celebrations got off to an wonderful start, with two  performances to a packed church of Hear the People Sing: a concert featuring music with a Chiswick connection! A ten-minute film compilation of some of the highlights of the event can be seen on YouTube here. https://youtu.be/SoWfZ8kZTqY

SATURDAY 28 MAY 7:30PM - HOUNSLOW SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: MOZART IN MAY

The second event in the Festival was a lovely concert from this popular chamber group who gave us a programme of Mozart and Louise Farrenc.

SUNDAY 29 MAY 10AM - SERVICE OF CELEBRATION
Five members of the church: Katherine Makower (Amazing Grace), Peter Capell (Thine be the Glory), Audrey Jennings (I Cannot Tell), Cathy Morgan (Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer), and our organist Tom Torley (Dear Lord and Father), all chose their favourite hymns, which were sung by the congregation at this joyful service of worship and praise. The sermon was preached by the Bishop of Kensington, the Right Reverend Graham Tomlin and the service was followed by coffee in the vicarage garden. 

SUNDAY 29 MAY 7PM - POETRY FOR A SPRING EVENING
 The next event was an evening of joyful, uplifting and reflective poetry, chosen and read by the St Paul’s Poetry Group. All the poems from the evening are available to download in the anthology below. 

WEDNESDAY 1 JUNE 6PM - FESTAL EVENSONG

To mark the exact day of the 150th Anniversary of the Consecration of St Paul’s on 1 June 1872, this evensong service included a sermon from Archdeacon of London, the Ven Luke Miller together with some celebratory music sung by St Paul’s Choir and friends. The service was followed by a very jolly drinks party at the back of the church.

SATURDAY 11 JUNE 7:30PM - THE ADDISON SINGERS

English Music for a Summer Evening. The programme by this very popular West London choir included Dyson, Stanford, Delius and Vaughan Williams. 

FRIDAY 17 JUNE 6:30-7:30PM - THE HISTORY OF ST PAUL’S

This was an utterly fascinating talk on the history of St Paul’s  from James Wisdom and Val Bott from the Brentford and Chiswick Local History Society. Using old maps, James and Val showed us how the shape of the parish changed. We discovered how St Paul's grew from a temporary building for a new suburb to the substantial building that stands today and found out lots about how the social mix of the community around the church has grown over 150 years.

There is a new exhibition about the last 150 years of St Paul's at the back of the church, and this can also be downloaded as a pdf from the HISTORY page of this website. 

SATURDAY 18 JUNE 7:30PM - KEW SINFONIA
The programme for this lovely concert included Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, Brahms Piano Concerto no 1 and Gade Symphony no 4. 

FRIDAY 24 JUNE TO SUNDAY 26 JUNE - FLOWER FESTIVAL

The church was filled with flower displays from local churches, schools and community groups for all to admire and refreshments were served throughout the weekend in the gardens. There was also a variety of musical performances including Tom Torley on organ, Catherine Jessop on piano and Sue Shorter on flute! We were absolutely delighted to have the Middlesex Yeomanry playing in the garden on Saturday afternoon, who gave us a rousing selection of favourites.

SUNDAY 26 JUNE 6PM - EVENING PRAISE
The Flower Festival closed with an evening service with readings, music, prayers and hymns.  

SUNDAY 3 JULY 7PM - COMEDY NIGHT

The final event of the 150 Festival was an evening of hilarious entertainment from the brightest and best of London’s young comedy circuit, performing in a marquee in the garden. 100 guests brought their own picnics and enjoyed both the entertainment and the bar! The perfect ending to our celebration!

Previous Events

Above you can see pictures from concerts, the St Michael's Players 2019 production of Salad Days, our Royal Garden Party and our St Paul's to St Paul's walk which raised over £2,500 in sponsorship money for our church. Some of our regular events include the Quiz Night in January and a Christmas Concert in December. Below is more information about some of our past events and at the bottom of the page you can look at galleries of photographs.

I Knew A SImple Soldier Boy brought to St Paul's the voices and music of those who participated in and lived through the Great War in two extraordinarily moving and powerful performances. Written by John Theakston and drawing on the personal reminiscences of ordinary people and contemporary soldiers' songs and music; the concert on 11 November 2018 exactly 100 years after the Armistice featured a choir of 55 adults, a children's choir of 35 from the Unicorn school in Kew and a professional orchestra of 15 players under the direction of West End musical director Michael Reed. Simon Shepherd narrated the performance, and we were also lucky enough to have Andee-Louise Hypolite, Michael George, Bogdan Kominowski, Rebecca Gresson and Bernd Steixner as our professional guest soloists. The fabulous theatrical lighting was by Andrew Voller Lighting Design Ltd and the superb sound by Simon Walter. Thanks so much Andy and SImon - we massively appreciate all your hard work! Below are a few photos of the event - many are from the dress rehearsal rather than the event itself!

Rock in a Hard Place is an exhuberant musical wtitten by Mike Reed and John Theakston, about the life of St Paul. It was premiered at St Paul's Church in 2015, and you can watch some short excerts from that event by clicking on the links below.

https://vimeo.com/525075311/8a65adbaff

https://vimeo.com/525125978/4e616653a7

Photo Galleries of Events

• Rock in a Hard Place is a brand new musical taking us through the life of St Paul. It has a witty and original script by John Theakston and music composed by Michael Reed and received its world premiere at St Paul's Church on Sunday 7 June 2015 at 7 pm. The cast included Bogdan Kominowski (who played Jesus in the original production of Jesus Christ Superstar), professional actors Danny Hill and performers Patrick Clancy and Keel Watson. The part of the narrator was sung by local opera singer Rebecca Gresson. You can get a flavour of the show below! There are also links to some live footage from the event above, under the Rock in a Hard Place poster.

www.rockinahardplace.weebly.com

• In 2014 we commemorated the start of WW1 with our concert I Knew A Simple Soldier Boy. The event was sold out, and was a moving and marvellous occasion. Go to the website below to view our tribute.

www.iknewasimplesoldier.weebly.com

• To see some pictures of the last GroveSTOCK Music Festival - which was GroveSTOCK2013 - have a look below!This featured an amazing line up of bands both local and professional and a fantastic day was had by all!

www.grovestockphotos2013.weebly.com

• Our May 2013 concert entitled Rejoice was a veritable extravaganza of brass, gospel and rock! It featured performances from The Chiswick Rock Choir, Mad About Gospel, our own St Paul's Choir and Quintessent Brass playing with local tuba supremo Kevin Morgan. You can look at some photos of the evening at:

www.rejoiceconcert.weebly.com

• One of our most successful concerts ever was to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. The concert was a sell-out occasion and we all enjoyed this rousing and jubliant event on a beautiful May evening.

diamondjubileeconcert.weebly.com

• Over 40 children were involved in our performance of The Carnival of the Animals - with some amazing costumes as well as lots of singing and dancing! We also performed a new Michael Reed arrangement of The Daniel Jazz and Peter and the Wolf - a fabulous menagerie of music!

carnivalatstpauls.weebly.com

Second Sunday Concerts

The Second Sunday Concerts were a very popular series of concerts, which took place on the second Sunday of every month - hence the name! They were always in the church, which has excellent acoustics for live music, and are completely free! Concerts included one featuring four cellists from The London Mozart Players, who gave us a truly wonderful variety of gorgeous and spirited music and we've also been treated to classical guitar, trumpet, violin and piano as well as concerts featuring singing and jazz. If you would like to be on an email list to receive news of any forthcoming Second Sunday Concerts then please email Ben Chappell at benchappell@aol.com with Concerts in the subject line.

GroveSTOCK

GroveSTOCK was a fabulous summer music festival that takes place in the gardens and church! It is a charity event created by the residents of Grove Park to bring great music and some summer fun to the streets of Chiswick. There were seven GroveSTOCKs in all, and over the years we enjoyed music from an incredible array of musicians - both professional and amateur. The festival sometimes includes a kids talent competition - GroveFACTOR, and loads of different fun activities; plus a BBQ, bar and fireworks to finish! It was a non-profit making event, and all proceeds were donated to the charitable funds run by the church. 

Fireworks Party

Our Fireworks Party was a much-loved community event when we welcomed over 500 people into the gardens every November for a marvellous display of fireworks and our famous collosal bonfire! Over the years it has raised tens of thousands of pounds for charity, but due to an increase in numbers in recent years, we no longer feel we can stage the event in its current form. So, we are having a break while we consider other options. Huge thanks to everyone who has come along, supported us, helped out and generally made this such a popular evening!

St Paul's Christmas Concert 

As well as the Advent and Christmas services that mark this special time of year; we always have a Christmas Concert - which is usually on the Sunday before Christmas Day. It features an eclectic mix of music and a variety of performances from many local musicians. Over the years we've enjoyed music from Mad About Gospel, The Swingle Bells Jazz Trio, Festive Folk and Ben and Bea Chappell. We've also been treated to some guest solos from stars of the West End shows. Our children's choir are always an important ingredient in the festive mix! At our 2015 concert, photographer Sirli Raitma took some super photos which really capture the jouous feel of the occasion and you can see those at https://www.flickr.com/gp/sirliraitma/x1PH15