Dear friendsThis weekend we celebrate Pentecost, which is considered informally as the Church's birthday. This is the day that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, enabling them to spread the good news of Jesus beyond the Jewish people, out into the world. This is the day God fulfilled the promise to send a helper, an advocate, to enable Jesus' followers to continue the ministry he began during his time on earth.Our younger members of the church family have been celebrating this in their separate groups: Messy Church, Bears and Prayers and Sunday Spirit have all done exciting, colourful, lively activities over the last 2 weeks to learn more about this really important festival in the life of the church.I wonder how you feel about your own birthday? When we're young it's really exciting, with the promise of a party and cake. As we get older we may dread the next birthday coming along, with it's reminder of older age, or we may even forget how old we are, and a birthday just feels like another day.Birthdays, whatever age we are, are a cause to celebrate the life of an individual. Pentecost, for me, is a cause to celebrate the life of the church, the beginning of the church as we know it, a body of people gathering to worship, pray, and grow in our understanding of who we are as followers of Jesus Christ. It is also a cause to be open again to the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit, the gift of God that completed who he was for us, equipping and enabling us in our lives, ensuring we are never alone, even if there are times that we feel it.Our readings this week invite us even more into the story of our faith, and our gatherings this week, at 8.30 for a traditional Eucharist, and 10.30 for our more informal All Together Communion, invite us to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit again. I'm aware that it is a beautiful bank holiday weekend however, and many of you will be taking the opportunity to get away!It would be lovely to see you, equally I pray you will feel the presence of God in the work of the Holy Spirit, wherever you are.God blessBecky
Dear Congregation, Thank you very much for your open arms, your kindness, and your support. From the beginning of my placement, I really felt being part of your Church family. I will leave you with tears in my eyes! On 25th June I will be ordained at Lincoln Cathedral, and I really feel honoured that some of you will be with me on this special day. My biggest thanks go to Revd Becky who has been the most amazing mentor during this time. I have learnt so much, and feel ready to go for a curacy at Grimsby Minster. You are all welcome to visit me! May God bless each one of you, and may He hold each one of you in his hands. God loves you! Susanna It has been so wonderful to welcome Susanna to St Martin's for this final year of her ordination training, and I know she has had an impact on many of you. As with all students and ordinands who spend time here, as much as they learn from us, we learn from them. We will say goodbye to Susanna this Sunday, as part of our worship at 9.30am - a reminder of one service for both congregations this week. Do please then stay for the APCM where we celebrate and report on how we were church in 2022. With every blessing Becky
Dear friendsOne of the things I've noticed most about being "back" is the difference in having 3 months of a lot of alone time (although I have done lots of lovely things with different people!) and of being back within a community.I've done lots of reflection on what it is to be the body of Christ - including a reflection after going to the Body museum in Amsterdam ... another story for another time. I've experienced being back with the body over the last week in various expressions, from one to ones, acts of worship, Deanery meetings and Friday morning prayer. In each of these, it is true to say that conversations, prayers, learning, understanding and opening scripture are fuller and richer in sharing with others.Today's Morning Prayer is a prime example, where the first look at the Bible passages might suggest they were going to be a bit tricky! However, in reading them aloud with each other, and then talking about what we understand them to mean, they became beautiful expressions of what it is to live and act as a community - a community bound by God's love.That is one of the things that is unique about being church, I believe. We are not just a social club of like minded people, or a private membership, we are a community bound by God's love, learning how to live and act in the light of that love. We then hope that this becomes attractive, even contagious, to others so that more people will come to an understanding of God's love, and would desire to turn their lives towards Jesus - this is life changing and world changing stuff!Our readings this week, and the theme at Cafe church, follow on from last week's message where we explored what it is to live the life you've been given. We're almost taken "back to basics" this week, to explore some of the building blocks of our faith, and getting us ready for the arrival of the Holy Spirit.It would be lovely to see you - at 8.30am for traditional Holy Communion, or at 10.30am for Cafe church -informal worship with conversation and breakfast (and a fab activity for young people!). You are invited to be part of this community as we continue to worship, pray, learn, open scripture, and grow in our understanding, together.You're invited to also come together with the wider Deanery community on Ascension Day (Thursday 18th May) for a joint service at St Mary Redcliffe at 7.30pm. I'm delighted to be preaching at this service, and look forward to seeing you there.With every blessingBecky
Dear friendsIt's good to be back!I returned this week from my Extended Ministerial Development Leave, and I can't believe that it has been 3 months. Of course living so close to the church I have been aware of comings and go-ings, to an extent. I've heard the occasional organ practice, and hymn singing, when I've been in the garden, but in many ways I've been observing - not just the church, but life generally.As well as some amazing experiences, which I'll be happy to bore you all with over the coming days and weeks (!), I've done a lot of study and reflection. I've prayed, sung, painted, written, done some "life laundry", read countless novels and watched lots of films. The latter was mostly during the bout of COVID I had in February - when I was also grateful for the supply of jigsaw puzzles from Janice in our congregation!We also experienced sadness in losing our beloved dog Phoebe during this time - many of you are animal lovers so will know the pain of this.There will be so much to catch up on, and I'm looking forward to hearing all of the news in time. I'm so thankful for the whole St Martin's team - what a blessing to be this expression of the body of Christ. I'm also so thankful for the visiting priests who have shared worship with you.And now we look ahead - to the Coronation of King Charles, and there are prayers included in this week's offering which you may like to pray at home. To gathering together on Sunday morning at 8.30am and 10.30am - and I've really enjoyed preparing this week's Going Deeper which includes a summary of each Bible passage, and questions you might like to ponder. I'll be offering thoughts on what it is to live the life you've been given.We also look ahead to all that is planned for this month, saying "goodbye and good luck" to our friend Susanna as she moves home ready to be ordained; for the APCM on 21 May at 11.30 where we have the opportunity to gather as a church to celebrate all that happened in 2022, and to commit the year ahead, and the church officers, to God. We will have opportunities to be part of the church leadership and governance. Why not pray about whether this is something you would like to be part of?With every blessing, as everBecky
