St Martin's, Wells Road, Knowle, Bristol

Dear friendsIt was wonderful to welcome so many families into church on Wednesday, with significant numbers at Bears and Prayers, and then a lovely gathering as part of the Family Lunch and Film session. It was so good to offer a generous welcome and hospitality, for conversations, fun, warmth and food. I'm so thankful to everyone who gave up their time to help. It was hard work but really worth it.The idea of generosity, and abundant hospitality, feels radical in current times. We seem to have narrowed our gaze to our own survival of the cost of living crisis, the energy crisis: being driven by fear or finance. As we discussed last week on Climate Sunday, we sometimes need to challenge our motivations, and take a wider view of the whole of God's people, and what may be an inconvenience for one is the difference between eating or not for another.I make no apologies for the call for radical generosity that you will hear a lot of over the coming weeks. We are launching the Christmas Hamper project, where we hope to be able to provide 15 families within our parish who are most in need with everything they could want for their Christmas lunch (except the meat). We also want to enable people to buy a Christmas present for each of the children in those families, on a "Secret Santa" basis. You can make a difference to these families lives, with a donation or a gift, by helping on Wednesday 21 December to pack and deliver the hampers and gifts, or by accompanying the project in prayer. If you would like to donate something, or be allocated a child to buy a gift to the value of £10 for, please let me know.The Avon and Somerset Police Choir concert is on Saturday 26 November, which we hope will not only be a great social evening, but also the opportunity to raise much needed church funds. Raising funds allows us to pay our way in terms of the central cost of being church, as well as pay our bills.The Christmas Fair will be on Saturday 3 December from 10.15am to 2.15pm. We need lots of generosity to make this happen - help with setting up in the week before, with running a stall on the day, coming along to support, and clearing up at the end. There's plenty of opportunity for everyone to be part of this. Please don't wait to be asked - let me know if you're available in any way and I'll put you in touch with the relevant person!Gift Sunday will be on Sunday 11 December where you can bring a new unwrapped gift for a child of any gender of age and this will be donated to the community through the Salvation Army.We will also soon be able to accept your financial gift through contactless giving, and I'm so thankful to Andrew for enabling this to happen.Radical generosity is not just about money, it's about time and talent as well. It's also about a generosity of spirit. This looks like patience, and kindness, and tolerance, and welcome, and inclusion. On Sunday 27 November, Advent Sunday, we want to connect together as one body that is the church here at St Martin's. So, we'll be having one service at 9.30am, midway between the 8.30am and 10.30am services. It will be a Eucharist with hymns, and there will be a session for the young people. We are reminded this Sunday about the saints who have gone before us, as well as those who pilgrim with us now. We may feel that we will never live up to the standards of others, or the commitment of others, or the generosity of others. We will never out give God, of course, and perhaps the awareness of and ability to be radically generous has to begin with a true and authentic understanding of what we have received from God, through Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.What you choose to give is between you and God. As people who have said yes to following Him, we are invited to be part of the radical gift of generosity - however that will look - in the way we live our lives.With every blessingBecky

St Martin's, Wells Road, Knowle, Bristol

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A message from Becky... 14th October

A message from Becky... 7th October