Dear friends,

I hope you are well and looking forward to saying goodbye to January with me! Despite the cold and the dark I feel we have had a good start to the year at St Martin’s with all our usual services being vibrant and (many of them) peaceful times of meeting with God. Our weekly café continues to be a valuable space for people in our community and our PCC are doing a great job looking after things in this me of vacancy. Do continue to pray as we finalise the parish profile and think about advertising in due course.

Last Sunday I talked a lot in my sermon about how we all have a part to play in Jesus’ continuing mission on earth. If you would like to get more involved at St Martin’s either with something ongoing or something new do get in touch with myself or one of the ministry team and we can chat about opportunities. There are lots of opportunities to serve for young people and adults alike on a Sunday morning, Friday lunch me and even on PCC as we elect new members each year. If you have found a home at St Martin’s in recent years and plan to continue coming it would be wonderful to bring you more on board.

This week we are celebrating Candlemas, when Jesus was presented at the temple. Jesus is brought to the temple and meets Simeon, who we are told is full of the Holy Spirit and destined to meet the messiah – the saviour. He exclaims that this is the person they have all been waiting for and from his words we get the beautiful Nunc Dimitis which we use in compline and in other parts of our worship. There are many beautiful versions and compositions around that you might like to spend some me listening to this week. I recommend a version by VOCES8 on their album Evensong. As we come together this Sunday to reflect further on this exclamation and what it reveals to us for our lives today, may we discover more of what it means for us that Jesus is our saviour.

Simon Taylor will be taking both our services this week, an 8:30 spoken communion as well as 10:30 Holy Communion with Hymns and Sunday Spirit. There will also be a special evensong at Bristol Cathedral this Sunday during which Simon will become an honorary canon, lets support him as we can! I will be over at St Andrews in Hartcliffe offering cover for them but I will perhaps see some of you in the afternoon at the cathedral.

Finally, in this last week of January, when the trees are still bare and the cold roots in the ground await the warmth of spring, may you discover the rest and stillness that winter can offer us. Time to take stock, to reimagine or just to be.

Grace & peace,

Phil