On Thursday 18th April one of the saints of St Martin in the Bull Ring died. Her name is Muriel Dewick and she was a remarkable woman. In a week when the nation and even the world focused its attention on another remarkable woman, Margaret Thatcher (whatever you think of her politics she was remarkable!) it is worth reflecting on what we think is remarkable or even what we think a saint is. Sainthood isn’t really about perfection. Muriel was not perfect. She was often quite stubborn, and had a complete inability to throw stuff away. Her house was full of papers Which meant she wasn’t the most organised person in the world. But Muriel was a servant hearted follower of Jesus Christ who had a passion for mission, a deep prayer life and a genuine interest in how you were. Increasingly in the last few years of her life she was unable to move around freely. Her body was slowly seizing up yet her mind remained sharp, focused and centred on her lord. What was remarkable about Muriel was she ne

Yesterday I set up a prayer activity in our prayer chapel. I asked people to think of One Good Thing, thank God for the blessing, write it on a (pre-cut) flower and hang it on the tree. Just a day later the tree is covered in wonderful blessings. My favourite today is Mommy and Daddy love each other.  What a blessing, however old we are! And a blessing, like so many of them, which we might take for granted unless its taken away from us. I thought perhaps that you, our website visitors might like to join us by using the ‘comments’  link and adding your own ‘One Good Thing’. You are welcome to add one each day and use it as an opportunity to count your blessings, even on days when there seems so much difficulty you can look for something simple to be thankful for. I have repeated some which have been posted on our tree, they are all anonymous and on public view: Im alive, thankyou! I got together with my misus and we’re still together after 7 years I got an

‘This is Church: How it all began’ During the next three months we will be exploring how the early church began and dealt with the issues it faced. The spread and growth of the church is recorded in the Book of Acts. This is really the second volume of Luke’s Gospel as he is its author. Our aim is to learn from the early church and discover how their story can help us in our story here at St Martin’s. Having spent the first part of this year looking at what Christians believe through our whole church Alpha we now look at how these beliefs impact on real people building the church. This we believe will help us to deepen our faith and grow the church community at St Martin’s. Later this year we will be launching a new vision and strategy document and we want it to be a modern expression of the church as it was then and can be today. Dates to note: May 12th-18th Christian Aid Week May 19th: Pentecost Sunday June 16th: Civic Service at 6pm   Image: Vicki

  Sabbatical travels have allowed me to listen to different preachers in different places. Being in the pew and not being the one delivering the sermon has been a very refreshing and challenging experience. But as I have listened the one question that has been most prominent in my mind is ‘and the point is?’   On a number of occasions I have been given quite a lot of information about biblical characters, useful stories (and some not so helpful), and a few rather cheesy cliches that really should never have been said. On only two occasions did I feel personally challenged, engaged and uncomfortable. Now I don’t think sermons are simply about making me uncomfortable or anyone else for that matter but I do think they should make me think! Sharing lots of vaguely interesting information is vaguely interesting but that’s all it is. Surely there needs to be more of a challenge in it as well?  Whilst working as a vicar in Bristol I had the privilege of being on the local radio station a