Page 4 - C:\Users\Jim\AppData\Local\Temp\msoEBB5.tmp

Dear friends

By the time you read this Martyn will have been inducted to his new
pastorate in Hertfordshire. We wish Martyn and all his family well in
their new life and remember with gratitude all they have done in
Swanage, Wareham and Skinner Street..

I’m also preparing to preside for the first time at Communion. It is a
privilege I never expected to have. Please forgive me if I do things
differently to Martyn and tell me so we can discuss it. It is helping
me to understand how our new Elders team feel .Be kind and
gentle with them as they learn about their role.

As I learn more about
Communion, I am reminded of
the story Open the Book
presented before Easter - An
Important Meal- the story of
the Last Supper. During the
story Jesus says, ‘I will never
forget you, and I don’t want
you to forget me.’ This is the
reason we celebrate Communion almost 2000 years later.

Jesus asked his friends to remember him after his death but he did
not ask them to continue to mourn and do nothing. When Jesus
met the disciples on the hill in Galilee after he had risen from death
on that glorious Easter day, he gave his followers a new task. ‘Go
then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples:
baptise in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and
teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.’ He also
promised, ‘I will be with you always, to the end of the age.’
Matthew 28;19-20.

I’m sure Martyn also would like us to remember his time with us but
he would not want us to mourn his moving to a new pastorate and
fail to move forward. Indeed, in his final sermon in Swanage he
said, ‘We need to continue to listen for God’s voice; to continue to
discern God’s will for our future’.

4