The women's group meets regularly at All Saints.

Further information can be obtained from Janice Milbank, Alice Holland or Helen Palmer.

A voluntary donation of £1 a month may be given to help with administration costs.

The programme for the coming year (2007) is :-

The Women's Prayer Breakfast

The women’s prayer breakfast was introduced to All Saints three and a half years ago, following an invitation to Pat, Emma and Janice to join the Prayer breakfast at St. Margaret’s Church, Barking. This Church had been putting on their breakfast for a couple of years and it had been widely spoken off and supported.  At this time Pat, Janice, Emma and Jenny were part of the Worship Group at All Saints and it was through this group that we decided to look at starting up our own women’s breakfast at All Saints.   We felt that it was a place where fellowship, sharing and witness could be sought and shared.

Having looked at what was good about the St. Margaret’s group (and what wasn’t) we put some thought into what we wanted and how we could achieve this.

We decided that firstly it was definitely only for women.  Our second priority was the speaker, we wanted someone (preferably a woman) who could come and share with us their work, their life and their experience.   Our last priority was of course the breakfast, should we have a traditional English breakfast (bacon, eggs and the rest) or should we be more refined and go Continental –  the refined won of course as those arranging felt their characteristics were more predisposed to this!! 

Our first breakfast took place at Harvest in 2004. Our breakfast starts with Prayer and is followed by food – I’ll talk about that later, and our speaker then has the floor, this is followed by questions from the audience.   Our first speaker was the Head teacher at Plashet Girls School in Plaistow.  She told us about her life in India before coming to England, about her faith as a Muslim and about her work with children in deprived areas of London, which was well received by those attending.  Janice, Pat, Emma and Jenny all felt even after only one breakfast that this was going to be something special here at All Saints, we were not wrong.

Our first breakfast was a great success and the format seemed to work well.  We asked for feedback on all the areas and the response was very positive.  We therefore decided to try it again and put a date in the diary for February 2005, this was also successful - we have continued with October and February every year since.  Our speakers have come from different areas and have included, Community Links, Richard House, The Samaritans, School Teacher from the Royal London Hospital and a Street Pastor.  Their experiences and witness to their community and their work within our society enlightens and encourages us all.

A little bit about our food – well there isn’t anything little about it.  If I said it looked like the Ritz, then I wouldn’t be exaggerating (well maybe a little)!  All I know is that those attending for the first time, especially those from outside All Saints are amazed at the feast before them and those attending from All Saints are surprised that for the price they pay it’s nothing short of a miracle.   Our reputation has grown and we are often asked by the men if they could join us. But we have to say NO!                                              

  Pat Triggs

Our Prayer Breakfast has gone from strength to strength and although it’s hard work we really enjoy it and pray that our work with this will continue for some time to come.

If anyone is interested in helping us with this please speak to Pat, Janice, Emma or Jenny.