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Welcome to St Martin's

Photo of hanging roodAt St Martin's we try to offer the best of being catholic within the Church of England. All are warmly welcome and we use all the senses in our worship. The hanging rood (pictured right), which is seen on entering the church, expresses our faith, focused on Christ, joining in love with Mary, his mother, and seeking the deeper understanding portrayed by St John. While we value our ritual it is not fussy or an end in itself. What matters is the tradition of the faith we want to share.

We hope that this website helps you understand a little of who we are - people trying to live out our faith in our part of Bedford. As a parish church within the Church of England, and the Diocese of St Albans, we have a care for all who live in our parish. Whenever possible we join with colleagues in the other churches in town, nostly through Central Bedford Churches group of churches. St Martin's offers its own distinctive contribution through its particular tradition, which we believe to be an important strand within Christianity.

You won't find lots of "bells and whistles" on this site as we aren't that type of church (though we do use bells in our services). What you will find is more about who we are and what we are like. Some of this will be through links to other sites, which are important to us. One of these is to the Bishop of Richborough, one of the "Flying Bishops", since we are under his pastoral oversight. Most, including access to various resources, are gathered on the Links page. I have also started a blog where I post occasional thoughts.

If you join us at one of our services, or one of our other events, you can be sure of a friendly welcome. We don't claim to have all the answers, but we are trying to find more of them - and to help you find your answers at the same time.

Roger Stokes, Priest-in-Charge