I am pleased to be with you all at St Martins this Sunday. I did my years placement as an ordinand with you in 2020/21 and felt so welcomed by you, so am pleased to be coming back to see some familiar faces and meet some new people as well.

This week is Mothering Sunday, a time which in recent years has come to celebrate the role of a mother, which can have mixed feelings for many people. Back in the 16th Century it was less about mothers and more about visiting your ‘mother’ church, a church near to you or your home church. It was also a tradition that if you worked in a place like an estate you would have been given the fourth Sunday in lent off to visit your family, and would probably go to church to. As I come to St Martins this week I will be thinking of it as coming home to the church family that I was part of for the year, and still feel part of.

On Sunday I will be thinking about being a risk taker or an opportunity maker, and how God is with us in all of our lives, and how we make the most of where we are placed. As well as taking our own risks, as mentors for others we also can allow others to take risks and make opportunities. I was given many new opportunities when I was with you a few years ago and took those things I’d learnt away with me to the churches I was going back to. We worship a God who is the perfect nurturer and parent. As The Mothers Union service introduction says ‘On Mothering Sunday we gather to praise God our Heavenly Parent for his constant perfect love, which protects and surrounds us through good and hard times.’

I look forward to catching up with you over coffee this week.

Ruth