Dear friends,

Last Sunday I was pleased to be invited to a wonderful event in East Bristol. It is called Winter Tales and it forms part of the winter program for a church I have told many of you about in the past – Hazelnut Community Farm. They usually meet in their community garden, getting their hands dirty in the soil as they pray, worship and try to imagine how we can address the urgent situation in creation. For this event we had, thankfully moved indoors but they set the room up as though we were around a fire with more candles than people and a wonderful ceramic pot with a big flame. It was cosy and the light flickered as the sun set. Each of us that had been invited had written a story to tell, something that spoke in some way of our lives or our spiritual rhythms or perhaps something about the particular way of winter. It was excellent! Some people brought out props or told stories from their childhood. Others had written pieces of fiction or told us about their podcast. Each person brought something that contained something of their own personality and showed their own creativity. It made me think, amongst many things, that we should have an event like it at St Martin’s. Too often our church life is filled with the same voices presenting thoughts in similar ways. Those of us who have been trained and commissioned to lead from the front along with the limited ways other voices can join in. Whilst I am happy to serve in these ways, taking me in the week to think through a sermon or our prayers of intercession, it would be wonderful to have more voices involved. So, for our services I propose two things – firstly, if you are under 15 and would like to do a reading, lead our prayers or help with the sermon, speak to one of the ministry team and we can get you involved on a fourth Sunday. Secondly, if anyone ever feels they have a story (or testimony) they would like to share with the wider community, let me know and we will explore how and when we can make room for this. If you would be interested in an event similar to Winter Tales (perhaps in the garden around a fire in May) then let me know and I will see if we can put something together.

Our community continues to thrive with lots of activities and events coming up including bears and prayers and our Ash Wednesday service with the Bishop of Bristol. Do join in where you can! This Sunday we will be thinking about finding peace within the storm and in particular, thanks to a reading from Genesis, we will have room to wonder how all of creation could find peace. We can be part of that as we live our lives from day to day, in the decisions we make, the products we buy and the ways we manage waste (not just recycling). As we gather on Sunday we will think about these topics in the context of gathering around the Lord’s table because these are topics that are important to God. We hope to see you either at 8:30 or 10:30 joining in with the young people who have offered to read and pray with us!

Hope to see you soon,

Rev’d Phil