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National Day of Reflection – 23rd March 2021

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On March 23rd we will be marking the anniversary of the first lockdown, as part of a National Day of Reflection.
 
This last year has affected so many of us in different but profound ways and at St Martin’s we would like to offer something practical for our community to do to mark this date in a way that will be lasting and meaningful.
 
We have decided to plant flowering bulbs and other plants under the trees at the front of church as a way of acknowledging all that has happened: the things we are grateful for, like the SaFE initiative and the NHS; the people we may have lost through illness; the separation and isolation that so many have had to deal with; and those who have suffered from the virus and continue to feel its after-effects.
The flowers will come back every year at this time and will be a lasting reminder of all that we have experienced.
 
Come along, between 10am and 4pm on Tuesday 23rd March and plant something as your way of marking this date. There will be plants available but you are also welcome to bring your own flowering bulbs (like crocus and daffodils).
 
Please get in touch with us for any more information.

Holy Week and Easter 2021

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We are looking forward to gathering together in different ways over Holy Week, to remember the events leading to Jesus’s arrest and death on a cross and, three days later, his rising again from the tomb.

This year, more than ever, it feels important to celebrate the new life and hope that the Easter message brings us. We’d love you to join us as we journey through this important week together. [Read more…] about Holy Week and Easter 2021

Planning a pathway back to in-person worship at St Martin’s

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We are delighted to see that the Covid infection rates and other important numbers in our area continue to decrease. Our community is in a significantly better position than we were at the beginning of the year and we are giving thanks for this.

However, we are still maintaining a cautious approach to public worship whilst a national lockdown is still in place.

We re-opened our Wednesday 10am Communion and Sunday 11am All Age Worship to the public at the end of February. However, we are still livestreaming the 11am service for those who still need or prefer to join us from home.

We hope to bring back our 9am Sunday Communion service on Palm Sunday (28th March), local infection rates and other factors permitting.

Our Youth and Children’s work continues to be held online, in line with current law. This should return to face-to-face meetings after 12th April.

For more information about our Holy Week and Easter services and activities, please click here.

 

UPDATE: Public worship at St Martin’s temporarily suspended

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The church leadership – both Standing Committee and PCC – have agreed that, from Tuesday 12th January 2021, we will be temporarily suspending public worship at St Martin’s. This will be reviewed after Sunday 24th January.

The government and Church of England’s advice remains that places of worship can remain open during lockdown and we are confident that St Martin’s remains a “Covid-secure” space. However, there are several factors that have led to this decision for our church:

  1. Local Covid infection rates have more than doubled in the last week.
  2. We want to play our part in encouraging all of our community to stay at home and prevent further spread through interaction with others outside our households.
  3. We have kept in close contact with other local churches and we all feel this is a consistent approach to help protect our communities in the forthcoming weeks.

However, this does not mean that the church is closed! We are as busy as ever, and continue to work on providing all our usual services and community work remotely, wherever possible.

Our regular services and meetings will all be held online, as follows:

  • Sunday 11am All Age Worship – livestreamed on Facebook and uploaded to YouTube afterwards
  • Y+C Sundays – a Zoom session for children and young people, held at 10.15am before the main All Age Worship livestream. Contact stmartins.childrenandfamily@gmail.com for the meeting details.
  • Wednesday 10am Worship – livestreamed on Facebook and uploaded to YouTube afterwards
  • Life Stories (a new series of interviews with church family) on Wednesdays at 7.30pm – livestreamed on Facebook and uploaded to YouTube afterwards
  • Ignite Children’s group – 4.15pm every Thursday on Zoom for children of primary school age. Contact stmartins.childrenandfamily@gmail.com
  • Friday Night Takeaway – a new Zoom meeting for young people between 11 and 18 years old at 7.30pm on Fridays. Contact stmartinsyouthwork@gmail.com for the meeting details.
  • Saturday morning prayer meeting – on Zoom. Please contact revabbyrhodes@gmail.com for the meeting details.

We are working to ensure we keep contact with those who do not have access to the internet as well and hope that we will be able to return to opening for public worship very soon.

We continue to pray for God’s protection and for a speedy delivery of the vaccine programme!

Rev Matt Taylor & Rev Abby Rhodes

 

Important Announcement about Sunday 8th November

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INFORMATION ABOUT WORSHIP ON SUNDAYS, INCLUDING OUR REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY WORSHIP….

As you will be aware, from Thursday 5th November we will be unable to gather for public worship in church for a month, as part of the national lockdown plans.However, we will continue to livestream our 11am worship, as we have been doing since March – join us here on Facebook Live to worship together online.

This Sunday is Remembrance Sunday and we will be starting our Livestream early – at 10.50am – to include an outdoor Act of Remembrance and two minutes’ silence at 11am. Those *without* access to the internet are welcome to join us in person, maintaining social distance, for this short act of worship. If you have access to the internet, we strongly encourage you to stay at home and join in with the service and two minutes’ silence from there. This will allow you to easily continue to worship in the main service after 11am.

We will be continuing our series about Worship and the Word and will be thinking about defiant worship on Sunday. We may be unable to gather together in our building but we can still worship together from wherever we are – we’ll see you there!

Restarting our 9am Sunday service

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Picture of church with details of 9am and 11am servicesHaving stuck to one Sunday service since reopening for public worship in July, our PCC have now confirmed that we will return to a two-service Sunday morning! So from Sunday 13th September, we will be re-introducing our 9am service, ahead of our 11am All-Age worship, ensuring that both services are Covid-secure.
Due to this there will remain some guidelines and changes we need to follow. Many of these guidelines have been in place since July this year, both at the 11am service and at the 10am Midweek Holy Communion….

[Read more…] about Restarting our 9am Sunday service

Church building closed until further notice – 23rd March 2020

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In light of the Prime Minister’s statement on Monday 23rd March, and following further advice from the Archbishops and Diocese, we sadly have to close our church building with immediate effect. This means that it will no longer be open for private prayer or to receive donations for the Foodbank.

However, church continues! We are not closed – we just have to work in different ways. [Read more…] about Church building closed until further notice – 23rd March 2020