40 days of Prayer Please join us in 40 days of prayer this Lent. Loving Father, bless the community of St. Martin’s with your love, compassion and care. Fill us with your Spirit that we might walk in your ways. Open our eyes to see your hand at work in our lives and glorify your name through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Upcoming special events for Lent: Ash Wednesday – 5th March We will mark the start of Lent with services at 12 noon and 6pm on Ash Wednesday. Both services will include the opportunity to receive the imposition of ashes as a mark of this season of penitence. The 6pm service will be Holy Communion. All welcome. Lent Course Last week 27 Anglican bishops wrote an open letter to the government to protest about people going hungry in the UK. This is part of the End Hunger Fast campaign (see www.endhungerfast.co.uk). The Lent course is called Parables & Possessions and looks at issues of poverty and our relationship with money. It will be on Wednesday evenings from

It was like a spring day when we had our HOTS session at St Martin’s.  We even enjoyed the sun warming our faces at times. The Market place was busy and there were lots of people from all faiths, cultures, social and economic backgrounds.  This is an extract of last March’s HOTS feedback. How weird this is –  I could write this all over again for this year’s feedback .The weather was just like a year ago!!!! The Bible reading for that day in the Church of England lectionary was James 5: 13-end. We read that ‘Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it didn’t. Again he prayed that it would rain and the heavens gave rain and it produced its crops…’ Two things called my attention in this reading: Elijah was a man like us He prayed for something and it happened and then he prayed exactly for the opposite and it happened too! Why? What is going on here? Without turning this feedback into a sermon, I’d just like to say this to encourage us as we pra