Ascension of Face book the Good book and the feast of Ascension

The ascended singers of the All Saints Church Fulham choir
waving from the medieval church tower
at 7.15 a.m 17th May 2012 on Ascension Day

Congratulations to all at Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook has now ascended into the realms of Wall Street.

 Apparently the appetite for shares has been so ferocious that Facebook issued 25% more than originally planned.

Possibly tomorrow 28 year old  Mr Zuckerberg is likely to be sitting on paper fortune worth more than $26 billion.

Fantastic result for just eight years in business!!

Today others have kept the feast of the Ascension across the world “Their profit and their joy to know , the mystery of his love.” celebrating the feast of the Ascension.

A small group of us join Canon Joe Hawes ( Vicar)
 and Revd Penny Seabrook
 before going off to work on Thursday morning
 dutifully watched over by our guard dog 'Bruno'

At All Saints Church, Fulham, London on the north bank of the river Thames we celebrated Ascension Day this morning at 7.00 a.m. al fresco to the accompaniment of birds twittering with rather more than 140 characters.

A small group of us assembled outside the west door  of the church beneath the medieval tower which has stood on this site since 1440.

 Some 60ft above us- within the tower -the team of bell ringers were preparing to ring out the church bells across west London .

It was the most beautiful of springtime wake up calls. Listen to the sound on the video clip.

Some 90 feet above us on the top of tower was the choir sang out across the river hymns and  and full throated rendering of Guiseppe Pitoni’s (1657-1743) ‘Cantate Domino.’

 Interesting to reflect that this piece of music 18^th century was some two hundred years  younger than the tower!

The tower is made of Kentish rag stone, which came up from Maidstone by barge. Henry VI’s officers kept trying to appropriate it for Eton College!

The six hundred years have taken their toll. There are essential and urgent works to be done. Re-joining of the corners of the tower, replacement of old mortar.

A new bell frame is to be built in the Clock frame.

The bells are to be re-hung so that they can be rung more easily.

The Church has an appeal for this conservation work which is supported by English Heritage and heritage lottery funded but the total cost of repairing the tower, moving the bell frame so that the bells can ring without damaging the tower again is around £470,000.

If you would like to contribute to the All Saints Restoration Appeal details can be found

info@allsaints-fulham.org.uk and www.alsaints-fulham.org.uk

Whether you are :

·         one of the 1,000 millionaires that will be created by the flotation of facebook today,

·         one of the 845 miilion monthly active users ( up some 39% from last year,

·         one of the 483 million active daily users ( up 48% from last year) ,

·         one of 100 billion number of ‘friends’,

         one of the 2.7 billion number of likes and comments per  day,

·         or one of the 3,000 facebook employees

·         or Mark Zuckerbeg himself

·         or simply one who cares about an historic building that has stood for 600 years that has enabled off-line and on-line human social networking community for its weddings , births, funerals, many services and a beautiful place for quiet – and even as a back drop for a Hollywood blockbuster!

Thanks for reading this blog