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
It’s been a while but it is so wonderful to be coming back! Thank you for inviting me. For those who don’t know me I am a second year curate for St Luke’s church Barton Hill and St Ambrose Church Whitehall. I am also a district nurse working in the Chew Valley. I arrived at St Martins in May 2017 very unsure if God was really calling me to ordination. I had only agreed to come here if all my family came too, that was my line in the sand and it was a big commitment for them to come to a different church and a new community but wonderfully my family agreed to come and we arrived on mass. Well, all four of us! And you made us so welcome. My first memory is Becky asking us to come up to the front and explain why we were joining you for a year. I stumbled and muttered something about God calling me to ordination and having no real idea what that meant and why he had called me. Unsurprisingly Becky was not inspired by my muttering but over that year with her help and yours my sense of calling grew and a month after leaving you all, I went to BAP or interview and the bishops advisory panel said YES to me training for ordination and the rest as they say is history. So you all hold a very special place in me and my ministry and it’s a real privilege to be back. It will probably be just me and Neil coming this week as both Elizabeth and James have left home since we were last with you. We are officially empty nesters! If you are new to St Martins since I left you, you can see a bit of my creativity above the Holy Nave Altar. I had made a similar one for Christ Church, Clifton and it was decided you would like to make one too. Becky chose the colours of red and orange to represent the holy spirit. It was great to bring together all your creativity to make something so special that fitted above the altar so beautifully. When it was hung up it was discovered there was a light there that they hadn’t known about, it was almost like it was meant to be. I think it is a beautiful piece of art depicting the heart of your church. I hope it remains a blessing to you all. I am so looking forward to being with you this week and I will be looking at just why St Martins church is such a special place to be and worship. What makes it a place people want to come and explore their call to follow Jesus. See you on Sunday!
