Dearest friendsI hope you have had a good week - for those households where exam results have been received, I hope all is well! For those who may feel that their chances have gone "down the drain" if they didn't get the results they wanted either this week with GCSE's, or last week with A levels, I can confirm that I have checked the drains and there are no missed chances or lost opportunities there at all!It continues to be so life enhancing to follow our sermon series. For many churches, the Summer holidays are almost written off as a quiet time where so many people are away. It has been so good to turn this attitude on it's head at St Martin's, in saying rather than going "quiet" we're going deeper, to consider who we are and who we're called to be as a church. With all of the resources shared on email, it also means those of you who can't make it to church on Sunday can still engage with the message, particularly with the Monday takeaway each week.Over this last week we have continued with our exploration of "World" as a building block of what it is to be church. Beginning with a wonderful gathering at Southlands on Monday, we had a time of joy, conversation, singing and prayer ... plus a lovely cup of tea with all of the residents. It was also so good to have some members of the congregation sharing in the service. We'll be going every month on the 3rd Monday at 1.30pm. do please come along if you would like, it truly is a joyful experience to take church "out" into the community. We also met on Wednesday evening to look at what it is to be a Christian presence here in the parish. Conversations were fascinating and eye opening as we considered the demographic of the parish, where people tend to meet as community within the spaces in the parish, and how we might be, both as individuals and as church, a light to the world. We thought about our physical presence, as well as our relationship presence.There are many more conversations to have about this, this is just the starting point, and you'll be invited to come along to consider this more in the weeks and months ahead. One of the questions we pondered, and which you might want to consider yourself, is what we want our church to be known for in our community? So this week we turn our attention to our next building block, Worship. We'll be considering why worship is important, who is it for, how we prepare ourselves. what do we hope and expect, why do we need different 'ways in" to worship .... so much to consider, and it would be great to see you either at 8.30am for our traditional Holy Communion service, or at 10.30am for our All Together Communion, where all ages will gather together.We have a "takeaway" resource for you this week, to enable worship throughout the week, not just on a Sunday, and then on Wednesday evening, Frank will be leading Evening Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer in the Lady Chapel, at 7.30pm.You are invited to all of these things.With every blessing, as everBecky