Is God calling you to be our new Musical Director at the Parish Church of St Martin's Knowle, in the Diocese of Bristol?We are looking for someone to work with our Vicar to enable the ongoing and growing worshipping life of the church and to lead our talented, robed choir. We have a choral tradition that we are seeking to enhance, and a worship pattern that has emerged as a result of the pandemic which offers flexibility and creativity. The Musical Director would lead on the 1st, 3rd and 4th Sundays of each month, as well as holding a weekly choir rehearsal.Remuneration is in line with RSCM recommended rates: £50 per service plus 50% of the fee for a week-day rehearsal. Occasional office fees are £90 per wedding and £70 per funeral. For an application pack, which details the role description and person specification, please contact the Parish Administrator, Sophie Boyce Couzens: stmartinsknowle@gmail.com.Date for applications: Monday 9th May 2022, interviews Saturday 28th May 2022
Dear friendsI 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
Dear friendsI write this in the midst of the Triduum - the three day service that begins on Maundy Thursday and ends on Easter Day.Holy Week has been remarkable, with a beautiful Eucharist on Holy Monday in the Lady Chapel, a disturbing and disquieting evening on Holy Tuesday with the showing of the Passion of Christ, a meaningful journey around the Stations of the Cross on Holy Wednesday, and then remembering the last meal that Jesus had with his friends, with a wonderful sharing supper - the Agape Meal, before that shared experience of the Eucharist, and watching and waiting in the Lady Chapel, which was transformed so beautifully into a Garden of Repose. And today, the retelling of Holy Week in ways that enabled people of all ages, and all levels of faith, to understand more, leading to the solemn and powerful liturgy of Good Friday.As people of story, following this story in creative ways is so important. To feel the breadth of emotion and experience, to go deeper perhaps in new ways, enables us to connect our story with Jesus' story and God's story of redemption for the whole created order.I pray that whatever you have had going on in your life this week, you have been able to connect with this Holy week. And whether you have been able to come to church or not, that you have been able to pause for your moment at the foot of the cross, knowing how deep and wide God's love is for you.There is more to come, with our journey from Lament to Light on Saturday evening, and then the Easter Day Eucharist on Sunday morning. Again, there is something for all ages particularly on Sunday morning, with our traditional Holy Communion at 8.30am, this week followed by breakfast for anyone who is able to come along. Then at 10.30am we have our Family Eucharist - for the whole family of the church - with an Easter Egg hunt at the end.From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday we will have held 13 services. None of these can happen without a significant amount of people involved both up front and visible (not including the ministry team), and behind the scenes. I calculate over 60 people have helped this week, either in preparations, reading, singing (and the choir have sounded breathtakingly beautiful, and have worked so hard to lead and enhance the worship we have shared), in praying, or serving. I am so grateful to everyone who has supported or taken part in these wonderful acts of worship. We are blessed indeed.With every blessing, as everBecky
Dear friends Holy Week is upon us, and over the next week we have the drama, stillness, wonderand awe of the story of the Passion to the empty tomb of the Resurrection.I really hope you will take the opportunity to pilgrim together through the events ofthe week. There is something every day from Palm Sunday through to Easter Day, and each opportunity to gather will take us, I pray, deeper into an encounter with Jesus, his story, his journey, his gift of love.Throughout the week we will be using different spaces in our building, times of singing and silence, opportunity to watch as well as take part.It’s difficult to go from Palm Sunday morning to Easter Day morning, without experiencing the Passion, so if you’re able to, please come along to something in between - I will be at all of it, and you are invited and welcome to come everyday if you would like to!The point of the journey is not to be a passive observer, but to feel as though you are participating as well, so that when we get to Saturday evening, with the opportunity to renew our baptism vows, we have had space to reconsider again and afresh who we are and who we want to be, in the light of the love of Jesus. Some of you may already feel ready, in whatever shape or form your Lenten discipline has taken. I confess that my journey didn’t go quite according to plan! The promise of the new life that is offered in Jesus each day, and perhaps even more sharply in focus in an empty grave, enables me to remember again that how things have been does not have to define how things are going to be! I look forward to seeing you in the coming daysWith every blessing Becky
