Thoughts and reflections

Category: Faith goes walkabout Page 2 of 9

Acts of Kindness

Grandad and grandchild in tune…

An Act of kindness can mean many things, it can mean helping someone along the way, it can mean listening to a friend.  It can mean walking in step with someone else.  Holding a hand to support, or just to show you care is a sign across the generations. Sometimes  older and younger people are much more in tune with each other.

I came across this picture of a colleague who helped me along the Way and made such a difference to my journey. Who is helping who in the picture? Or are  grandchild and grandad just connected and see the joy in the same things.

Nearing the end of Lent I have created a set  of Prayers including this picture.

 

Rev’d Sue Martin

 

 

What kind of world do we live in?

World Vision is on the ground helping refugees from Ukraine

I am sure that you, like me and many others will have been praying more over the last two weeks. What a strange world we live in.

Tv screens and newspapers full of suffering, torment, war, destruction, and refugees. Ukraine is the focus of dreadful bombardments and suffering, and for what?

When people risk their lives by travelling across Europe with vans full of medical supplies, clothes and food, when children in our schools have seen the face of war and have stood up against it by spending whole days in support of Ukraine.

Whatever we may think, this is not the way it was ever meant to be, and I hope the sermon touches some of those thoughts indirectly. Read more in Lent 2022.

Hold fast to hope and pray like never before…

Rev’d Sue Marin

Epiphany 1

Arise and shine for your light has come ! Isaiah chapter 60:1

How hard it is to emerge from the darkness, the long dark nights and the cold wet days. What a joy the sunrises and sunsets and the days we have had where the sky is blue and we can feel the strength of the sun, that bright shining star that we depend on to survive.

Some time in the surf would be just the thing!

So, moving on from Christmas and into Epiphany, the time when the light shines on us all as we realise that the day has dawned when Jesus is with us for ever. The greatest ever moment of Epiphany.

Read more in Epiphany…

Christmas – 2021!

Christmas at Ely

A time of  festivity, of giving, a time of love and laughter, of friendship and togetherness.

Twinkling lights in the midst of darkness, presents and gifts, trees brought in the house and traditions to mark this special time.

Christmas, the time when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, Son of God into the world.
Christ among us.

The story of the Nativity, the journey of Mary and Joseph, the manger and the stable, the shepherds on the hillside, the wise men travelling from afar.

The brightest of stars marking the place where Jesus lay in Bethlehem.

But why did he come to us? Why didn’t he appear amongst wealth and fortune like other kings?

Read more… Christmas 

Advent 3 Sunrise

I’m going to start with the sunrise! Yesterday morning was absolutely wonderful. I was just getting up about 7.00am and looked outside to see a warm reddish pink glow on the skyline, so I said how lovely it was and continued with my usual ‘getting up’ arrangements.

By 7.30am I was outside  looking at the sky, touched by pinkness on the edge of high clouds.

All out of darkness we have light!

Read more on Advent 2021...

Advent 1 November 28th

The light shines in the darkness

Candle Light in St Mary’s East Walton. Norfolk  by Sue Martin

Advent means the arrival or the coming.

Just as it’s getting darker and darker with the nights getting longer and longer, we start thinking about the light of the world;

All out of darkness there came light,…

The light of the world has come among us to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armour of light from the collect.

What does that all mean, darkness, the works of darkness, the armour of light?     Read more in Advent 2021

Rev’d Sue Martin

Remembrance 2021

Poppies in the field..

At the 2 minute silence, my thoughts were in small pieces, sound bites ! They were…

On a school visit to the trenches, the tiny distances that were fought over, yet the huge space of the battles in Northern France.

The Canadian War Memorial in Arras, so many name and all those graves.

The medals that were won, the pride, the courage and the hope.

The Second World War and places like Dresden, destroyed, our own cities too,

The whole concept of a concentration camp, people I knew who escaped over here and sought refuge.

The army, the RAF and the navy, everyone doing their bit, the land army too.

Captain Tom Moore British Army officer and fundraiser who made international headlines in 2020 when he raised money for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the COVID-19 pandemic. One mile a day!! We were all touched enormously by the strength and determination of this amazing man of stamina, both physically and mentally.

It isn’t always in the huge things that are done but  in the small things done with great heart. 

Read more in Sermons 2021

Rev’d Sue Martin Diocese of Norwich

Michaelmas and Archangel St Michael

September 29th. Michaelmas, an important  day in the farming year when traditionally farm tenancies changed, and farm workers were unhired or hired for the coming year. Must have been a difficult time if you were a hired hand and then n longer had a job for the winter ahead.  The hiring fairs across the country were held around this day

St Michael the Archangel is patron saint of sea and maritime lands, of ships and boatman, of horses and horseman. He was the Angel who hurled Lucifer from Heaven for his treachery. He is seen as the leader of the army of angels against the forces of evil, as a protector. He is a Satan slayer and a dragon beater!

Read more in Sermons 2021

Rev’d Sue Martin

Education Sunday 2021

Every step of our lives is involved in learning. Every day, every waking minute, wherever we are, and however old we may be, we are still learning.        Education is the key!

It is the key to our understanding, the foothold on which our ‘ladder of life’ is based. It fills
our minds to grow, our hearts to understand and our souls to be refreshed.
We all have a part to play in education, whether in our own lives or for our families.
In our country we have an education system which is free for all children from ages 4-18
years. In further education we have a system whereby young people can follow their hopes
and dreams and find a way to a career. Education doesn’t end there… we have a lifelong
learning programme whereby we are encouraged to find out about different aspects at
different times. Every day and every year can be a learning journey.

Read more in Sermons 2021 

Written as part of my work as Bishop’s Officer for Schools Mission in the Diocese of Ely

Poppies and storm clouds

A few weeks ago I took the photo of the poppies in a nearby field, close to where I live in West Norfolk.

At that time fields were full of the stunningly bright red poppies.

 

 

Where there had been crops of wheat and barley, the fields had been turned into rewilding projects on the local estate farms and the poppies flourished.

For me, the poppies represent all that we have lost in this last year. Through their radiant colour, they show all that is good in this life. They show that if cared for they can flourish, just like ourselves.

The dark grey clouds indicate that we are not out of the storms yet, we still have to find our way through the Covid 19 crisis, blue skies appear from time to time, but still the storm clouds roll in.

But we will find our way through ,and with God’s help we can look after others who are struggling and we can find new ways of living. Like the poppies in the fields, which had been  struggling, but now are  radiant and flourishing.

Rev’d Sue Martin

Page 2 of 9

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén