At St Martin in-the-Fields you can expect all three.
As the people who make up St Martin’s you can expect to receive affirmation, as others come alongside you in discipleship as a sacrament of your existence and the truth that makes you who you are. Not to give you answers, not to try to improve you and not try to utilise you. Instead to simply be with you and enjoy you, confident that you will have as much to give as to receive and certain that God has always been active in your life; this is what Vicar Sam calls a theology of being with. I joined the congregation and staff of St Martin’s in 2019, encountering just this with my assets being celebrated and my deficits over accepted.
As the people who make up St Martin’s you will often hear the words ‘at the heart and on the edge’, which is an afront to the unjust systems and structures that impoverish so many. This is a call to be with those on the edge of church and wider society remembering Christ’s preference for the poor and recognising that the ways in which we live our lives will never just be personal or political but always be both at the same time. One of the highlights of my week is serving and being served at the Sunday International Group, a group made up of people who though persecuted are blessed. I have seen again and again how those in their need are satisfied by God, how through someone’s weakness God’s power is seen, how those with little to tangibly give show gratefulness and generosity in abundance.
At St Martin’s you will often be invited to acknowledge and give glory to God through regular worship and prayer, including daily morning prayer led by clergy and staff and daily compline led by the congregation from their own homes. It is this love for God that is the foundation of this community, from it it is strengthened and sustained and sent out in the power of the Holy Spirit.
This church and community is where the everyday become eternity, where benevolence becomes belonging and where unholy reproach becomes Godly restoration. In having been part of St Martin’s I have come to know more clearly, follow more nearly and love more dearly the one true God, incarnate in Jesus Christ our Saviour, who shares with us all we need to know and who in the Holy Spirit empowers to live out the Kingdom of God here and now. Keeping the people of this church in my heart, the experience enjoyed in memory and the lesson learnt in my head I leave here to serve others as I train for ordained ministry.
Ben Sheridan
