Dear friends, I hope you are well and enjoying engaging with this Lenten season. We are just over halfway and the anticipation of Easter is growing. There are always lots of ways to engage with the message of Easter at St Martin’s and this year each of our licenced ministers will be taking a service along with myself and Rev’d Simon. As you might imagine the flavour of each will be slightly different as we follow the journey Jesus made to new life via the cross and the tomb. Details of all our services in Holy week can be found in the long, Lent & Easter booklets as well as on our emails. I will also include a brief description along with a few reflections in my next Friday message. With all this rich symbolism and ritual to engage with I hope that many of you can find me during Holy Week and on Easter weekend to join us at church. Several people come to each of these services as they all offer something different, a different part of the story and journey. Those that have engaged with it in this way find that there is a richness and depth to their experience of Easter. Perhaps consider putting some dates in your diary now for you and your family to come along to something you have not seen before? This Sunday we celebrate Mothering Sunday, a day which marks a variety of things for a variety of people. For many the celebration of mothers and caregivers will be central as we acknowledge the hard work, sacrifice and dedication of people who care for others all year round. There is also room for us to contemplate our heavenly parent, God, asking ourselves how God is a mother to us all. Finally, the traditional roots of the day are in the middle ages as people visited the church where they had been baptised, acknowledging its part in their life and faith. For many it is a day of celebration and joy but we also acknowledge that, as with many celebrations, it has difficulties for some in our community. Whether it is because they have been unable to become a mother, did not have a good relationship with their mother or child or because they have lost a family member recently, there are many reasons it might not feel like a celebration for some. Therefore, as we gather on Sunday to reflect on all of these things, as we give flowers and celebrate let’s also pray for those who might be struggling. If you would like to talk with someone, do find myself or one of our ministry team after the service and we would be happy to chat, pray and light a candle with you. As it is a fifth Sunday (a rare occasion), our 8:30 service will be a service of morning prayer led by our licenced lay ministers. At 10:30 we will have a service of Holy Communion which I will take at the Nave altar with hymns and an activity for children and young people. Every blessing, Phil
Dear friends, I wonder what makes you excited? What builds a sense of anticipation in your life? For me it is often music – waiting for the release of a new track or looking forward to going to a live show. The build-up is often a big part of it for me, speculating on what it will be like, what songs they might play, how the new album will go down with the fans. For you it might be something very different that comes to mind such as waiting to unwrap a present or moving into a new house. Equally but in the opposite, I am sure we can all think of times we have been filled with a sense of dread or nerves. Waiting for that meeting to come around at work, wishing you didn’t have to go to a GP appointment to receive test results, watching on as events unfold on the news. Whatever examples we might think of, there is always a sense of heightened emotion leading up to a significant event in our lives. On Wednesday night a small group of us experienced that sense of heightened emotion as we participated in the first of four Stations of the Cross for beginners events in church. I call it an event despite its small scale because it is somewhere between a service and a small group, with space for reflection and discussion built into the me together. As always it was very moving to travel between the pictures, thinking about how Jesus might have felt and allowing our imaginations to help us enter into the scene. It is not too late to join in – no sign up required, just come along on a Wednesday in lent at 7pm and we will explain how we will visit the next four stations. Equally, if you are unable to make it but would like to join in, then the reflections are available either in church or by email (just send a request to Beth). This way you could make your own way around them in your own me after a service. As we continue to move through lent, I would love to hear from you about how you are engaging this year, what have you felt compelled to either give up or take up? I am going to follow Bishop Viv’s advice and try to take me to really appreciate certain things. For me this will involve going on tiny slow walks in my neighbourhood to notice and observe creation and all that is around me as well as making coffee slowly in my garden. Bishop Viv passed on a suggestion by Stephen Cherry: If you love chocolate don’t give it up this year but become a discerning and appreciative chocolate connoisseur – and see what comes of that. As a bit of a coffee snob already, it shouldn’t be too hard for me to take this a step further! So, get in touch or find me after a service and tell me about what you are doing this lent to engage in this season where we allow our senses and emotions to become heightened as we anticipate the coming of Holy Week and Easter. This week we will have Holy Communion services at 8:30 & 10:30 the first being our beautiful spoken service and the second with hymns and Sunday Spirit hopes to capture something of the awe and wonder that comes as we worship a God who is far beyond our imaginations. Come, you are welcome and invited! Hope to see you soon, Phil
Dear friends, We have arrived into lent! In this season of preparation for Easter I hope that you are able to find a particular rhythm of prayer, perhaps something very different to your usual or maybe just something in addition. This could involve fasting from something or it might involve taking something up. Our lent began together on Wednesday evening with our ashing service with Bishop Viv. Many of us found her words inspiring and helpful and so she has kindly passed her notes on so we can share them with those that weren’t there or for further reflection. She encouraged us to think about appreciating and participating. Instead of asking what we could give up Bishop Viv suggested we might find ways to more fully appreciate the things we love, whether that is taking slow walks to take in God’s creation or becoming a chocolate connoisseur for a season. In these ways we could discover something new this lent. She also invited anyone who would like to get more involved at St Martin’s to come and speak to me about how you could participate. I would always be happy to have a conversation about your skills and gifts that you might like to offer to our community. She ended with a poignant comment about how lent is short, drawing in the idea that we use the ash to reflect upon – our lives here are very brief in the scheme of things. This leads me to ask how am I making the most of my me here? And in terms of lent, how can I not miss out on this opportunity to reflect on how I live? There will be three very different styles of service on Sunday, spaces for all types of people to process and reflect on how we will engage with lent. First we have our simple spoken communion at 8:30 which will be taken by Rev’d Tim Godden. Next is our monthly café church which Steve and I will lead together, with me for breakfast (or second breakfast), singing and chat over coffee and tea. Finally, Frank Tucker will take a service of evening prayer at 3pm using the ancient words of the Book Of Common Prayer (BCP). Do have a think about which of these might help you to engage but also, whether you might help others by a ending something a little different. Looking forward to seeing you soon, Phil
Dear friends, Hopefully, as we start to see the sun again, you are finding your way towards spring! This week has been an interesting one with Alpha Youth (a 6 week series for secondary school aged young people) beginning on Monday and Bears and Prayers on Wednesday. Both seem to have been a success and both, in their own ways, allow different groups of people to explore faith in ways that are suited to them. At Alpha, which we are doing alongside 4 other local churches, the young people thought about what makes them happy, what long term fulfilment is by comparison and what they would ask God if God exists? One of the young people on my table said they would want to ask God if they still had faith in humanity. I thought this was a very profound question and it has stuck with me throughout my week as I have done my pastoral visits, written prayers and heard about some of the difficult situations people are living through. We can become so bombarded with bad news (also known as The News) that we can really struggle to believe that humanity is good or that a loving God cares. However, if we look more closely at things on a local level, where we see real examples of actual people, we encounter all kinds of loving, caring, good and generous people. Whether it is a small act of kindness by the side of the road or they have committed their lives to it for the long term, making it part of their job and vocation, I have seen people offering support all through my week. As for God, I suppose it is partly a profound ques on because we assume God has seen so much more than us and knows the intentions we have in our hearts behind our actions. For me, this draws me towards Lent which begins next Wednesday with our special communion service with ashing. We will be joined by Bishop Viv and it will be an opportunity for us to reflect on our attitudes and our actions, asking ourselves how we can live more full lives that are kind and generous to others and healthy for ourselves. Alpha is a great place to ask questions and it is not too late to join in. For more information and a permission form please email me or see me on Sunday. This Sunday Simon Taylor will take our services and there will be opportunity for coffee and conversa on a er both our 8:30 spoken Holy Communion and our 10:30 High Altar Holy Communion with hymns and Sunday Spirit. You are welcome and invited, whoever you are, whatever your questions. Come and learn, come and listen, come and worship, come and explore. Hope to see you soon, Phil
