Dear Friends,
I hope you are all well and have had a good summer, and for those who have been away or been to festivals, it has been a time of refreshing and renewing, too. We are just a week away from the start of September, and we have lots happening in these first few weeks of term, and wanted to let you know that there are some changes to our Sunday morning services some weeks.
Firstly, we had a amazing time at creation fest and big well done to Niall and his team for such a great festival. We are going again in 2026 and we shall be camping together and looking at how we can all eat together etc next year. You can book up to the 31st August for a discounted price here is the link more information later in the year about camping with St Martin’s.
https://creationfestuk.squarespace.com/
Sundays at St Martin’s
Sunday 31st August:
This Sunday is our Benefice service and a little different as we shall be at St Martin’s School field, having a picnic at 12pm-1.30pm and maybe some games. Then 1.30pm-3pm we shall have our service of communion. Bring a picnic, bring a chair or Blanket, parking available at School. If it is wet, we shall do it in the School. This will be the only service across the benefice. We are looking forward to joining all our worship communities together.
Sunday 7th September:
This Sunday we shall launch our new Sunday youth group Thrive (Parents know). They are planning how they will be serving 11 am service on the 2nd Sunday of the month. They will go out to the cellars at the start of the service.
We shall have one service at 11 am and this is a special Civic service celebrating our Mayor and Council (this was due to be in June). There will be no children’s groups as uniform organisations will be involved in the service. This will be the only morning service. Do join us as we celebrate our town and all who serve.
Beach Baptism service 4pm Seaton Beach
We have a few people across the benefice who are going to be baptised, so come and join us as we sing, pray and see some of our Church family get baptised in the sea. Also, if you might be interested, do let me know. Bring some food, and let’s have another picnic after the baptisms on the beach! Praying for some September sun!
Sunday 14th and Sunday 21st September
We shall have both 9.15 and 11 am on these Sundays. On the 14th, we will also be joined by TLG, sharing about their work locally and nationally!
Sunday 14th at 6 pm, our evening service will start again.
Sunday 28th Bishop David
We are going to be joined by Bishop David of Truro.
He will be at St Keyne at 9.30 and then join us for a joint service at St Martin’s at 11am, followed by a bring and share lunch in the Church. Then, finally, he will join us for our evening service at 6 pm.
Then throughout October, we are back to normal services at 9.15 and 11 am. With a focus on looking at some of the different ministries we are serving locally and internationally.
Over September, we shall be promoting different ministries that are struggling for volunteers. Three I would like to highlight today: All would come with some training and Safeguarding checks and training!
Sound and visuals Sunday
We are so pleased to have good sound and visual tech at Church; however, we are struggling to have enough team to offer this each week. Could you join the team? We can offer excellent training! If so, please let Nikki know.
Cellars Fridays 3 pm-5.30 pm
Our community youth gathering meeting each Friday term time is growing each week, however, we are struggling to have enough team to run this each week. Could you offer one Friday a month? Making drinks, kicking a ball, chatting. Hannah would love to hear from you!
Blaze Supper Club Thursdays 2.30 pm-5.30 pm
Blaze Supper club continues to grow, but we need more team members once a month, to help set up and take down, play games, make food, and chat. Could you offer one Thursday a month? If so,, please speak to Rachel.
Changing of Staff and training… and helping with our office move!
Over the last few months, we have been delighted to hear that Nikki has been selected to train for ordination and will start her training across the benefice in September, training for the next two years. She will continue to be part of our staff team but serving across the benefice and being at college in Plymouth each week, so she will be finishing her role next week as operations manager.
We are pleased that Rachael Pryor will be taking on a new role as office manager. A huge thank you to Nikki for all she has done, and a prayer for this next season, and prayers as Rachael takes on this new role.
Tiff has also been selected to train as a distinctive Deacon, training locally for the next three years. She will continue in her role on our staff team and will train part-time. Prayers as she begins this next season.
Karen, our fantastic children’s worker, and Darren, our Church warden, are going to be leaving in the next few weeks as they move from Liskeard. We are so thankful for all they have done in the last 5 years, from Cap, Facilities admin support, children’s worker, Church warden, and many other roles. We shall greatly miss them and pray for them in the coming weeks. We are not replacing Karen’s role, but Rachel Hollyman will be our Children and Family worker, at present, she is our family worker.
Do pray for our staff team as we start this new season.
We shall also be moving office with the work on the hall starting at the end of September, as our office will be out of use, so our office will be moving to the office space in the lower Hall.
We are moving Thursday, 4th and Friday 5th September from 10am-3pm we will be looking for some people to help move tables put things in skip and other fun moving jobs, if you could help please let Mark or Bronwen know. Also do pray as we move!
Then finally we would like to invite you to two great gatherings in the next few weeks.
Firstly, this Friday we have our family BBQ and Silent Disco at Church from 5 pm, come along as we share together and put on some headphones and dance. We do need a few more helpers from 4 pm so if you could help, please do let us know.
Then on Wednesday, 3rd September, 7.30 pm-9 pm, we shall have our termly Life group night where we shall be joining all the Life groups together to worship. Share about what is happening in the coming months, and also a great opportunity to come and possibly join a Life group. Do come and join us on Wednesday, 3rd at 7.30 pm.
That is a lot of information to take in and lots of dates, but also some great opportunities to join together and pray together. As I start my second year, I am taken back to that question I asked you all on my first Sunday: What are you praying about?
With so many changes and so many opportunities, there is a real opportunity to gather in prayer, and this is an area we are going to be exploring in the coming months. So as we meet in so many different ways, a question for you? What are you praying about?
Prayers as we start this new term and as we gather in so many different ways.
God Bless
Mark