St Martin’s

The Rev Richard Firth presided at a service of Holy Communion at 9.30am and preached on the promise of God never to abandon us if only we will respond to his call. He used as an illustration the Old Testament lesson for the day where Elijah, confronted by what he sees as his own personal absolute failure to achieve what God had instructed him to do, is reassured of the power of God’s love and encouragement to continue his work. Janet Lamb gave bible reading, and Jean Donovan led the prayers and assisted with the chalice at the distribution of communion. Janet Lamb and Julie Stephenson were sidespersons, and Clare Firth served coffee between the two morning services.

The Rev Firth also led the 11am All Age service during which he baptised Taylor Elizabeth Stockdale, the daughter of Jim and Fiona who were joined by other members of the family and friends. The Rev Firth talked about the journey of baptism in which this service was the beginning. He illustrated this with a story from the books of Winnie the Pooh, and then used the picture of how our journey in life needs the support of a loving God to watch over our successes and failures. Jean Fielder read a lesson from the Bible, Jeff Fielder led the prayers, Kate Middleton read a prayer after the baptism, and Mary Otway and Elizabeth Bradley gave a book of Bible stories and a card to Taylor on behalf of the Mothers’ Union. Music for the sung worship was led by John and Sue Grice together with Chloe Proctor and Neville Wright. Wendy Haslam served coffee after the service.