Dear friends

I have found myself saying many times over the last few weeks "I love church". This has been at times of worship, prayer or conversation, where there has been a profound sense of God's presence as we've been in community, or where there has been vulnerability in the way we have been able to share our lives with each other, or where I have been privileged to pray for someone, or known that I have been prayed for. It has also been during times of hilarity, where it is only in a church community that we will find diverse personalities, or life experiences, or those "Vicar of Dibley" moments that are the quirks and joys of what it is to be church! I know I have said before that I love what it is to be church - where all ages, all personalities, all experiences, can find a common, shared place to belong. And I love our church, here at St Martin's. So many people have commented on the journey of Holy Week through to Easter Day, how wonderful it was to have such variety, and "ways in" for people to engage with the story and Easter experience, as well as the High Altar experience of Easter Day with so many different ages present.

Over the last week there was a tangible sense of the Spirit, and the extremes of the journey from lament to light, which for me meant that Holy Week truly felt Holy, and Easter Day was truly full of the joy of the resurrection (as well as plenty of chocolate for those present at the 10.30am service who witnessed me smashing Easter Eggs with a mallet!). God is moving in this place, in the world that He loves, and in the place where we are called to worship Him and witness to our lives lived through a relationship with Him.

We are now in the season of Eastertide, where we encounter those resurrection moments for Jesus' followers who each needed to move from their Good Friday to Easter Day over the coming weeks where Jesus appeared to them.

I pray that you will be able to experience that encounter yourself - I hope that will be in a form of gathering as church, however I also believe that those revelations happen in the ordinary and every day experiences of our lives.

May you know the presence of the Risen Lord, who breaks into our Good Fridays with that promise of love, hope, joy and peace.

With every blessing as everBecky