St Martin’s

The Rev Richard Firth presided and preached at the 9.30am service of Holy Communion. His sermon was a reflection on the readings set for the day which challenge us to consider the basis of our faith and the need to understand how God is working out his purposes in the world. The readings gave a picture of our relationship with God, from Genesis and the account of Creation, through to the teaching of Jesus around the importance of not relying on the world to give us hope but to seek the working out of the Kingdom in our lives.

Richard commented on the perfection pictured in the Creation stories which has been broken through our neglect of the love of God which will in the fullness of time be fully restored through Jesus the Son of God. He suggested the coming season of Lent was a time to recharge our spiritual batteries to see what is being asked of each of us in our continuing journey of exploration and understanding of our faith.

Kieron Middleton gave a Bible reading and the led the intercessions. Edna Burton accompanied the hymns on the piano, Clare Firth and Sue Johnson were sidespersons and Doreen Livesey together with Clare Firth served refreshments.

John Worthy led the 11am service of modern worship and preached on Jesus; teaching about how we should respond to those who exploit or hurt us. Although evildoers should not escape justice, we should share the mind of God and pray for those who harm us. Rita Worthy had prepared the intercessions, Mary Otway read and Liz Cremer ran the Sunday Club. Richard Fuller (guitar) led the sung worship with John and Sue Grice (guitar and bass). Jo Taylor was the sidesperson and Elizabeth Bradley served refreshments after the service.