Dear Friends,

As of January 18th I shall be on sabbatical for three months. It is a requirement of the Methodist Church that ministers should have such a sabbatical in the tenth year of their ministry and every seven years thereafter. This represents an opportunity for study and reflection as well as being an opportunity to chill away from the demands of normal ministry. I hope to chill by reading some decent literature and history whilst cheering Manchester United all the way to winning the Premier league.  I hope to engage with a few organisations that bring hope to our communities although the extent of that will at least in part be dependent on what happens regarding the pandemic. My main activity will be to produce a piece of work looking at hope in a time when the world is traumatised. That will be shared with you on my return in April.

As I am going to be local I may bump into some of you and have a chat, However, I am expected to keep away from church activities and considerations. I shall be posting on the sabbatical from time to time through videos at https://www.facebook.com/reverendpaulmartin/videos/  ,

In the meantime, my colleagues Alexis Mahoney and Alana   Lawrence will be kindly attending to any needs in our church whilst of course caring for their own churches.