Details of weekly services at Bury Parish Church are listed, further down on this page. However, we thought it would be useful to give an overview of our services. Further details can be obtained from the clergy.
On Sundays there are three services to choose from.
The service at 8.00am lasts about half an hour and follows the version of Holy Communion in the Book of Common Prayer. Between 30 and 40 people attend. There are no hymns and it includes a very short sermon. If you want time to pray or think in peace, the doors open about 7.40am. If you want to speak to one of the clergy there is usually an opportunity to do so at the end of the service.
The service at 10.05am is also a service of Holy Communion. A more traditional-language service from the Book of Common Worship alternates randomly with a more modern version from the same book. The fine organ and excellent choir are very much in evidence and hymn singing is a big part of it. There’s a sermon, usually lasting about ten minutes. A Sunday School for young children is available during the first part of the service. Altogether about 160 people attend. Refreshments follow in the church hall.
On the second Sunday of each month, the 10.05am service is a parade service at which all our uniformed organisations are present. This is a shorter Communion service where more contemporary language is used. Within the service, parents with a child who will shortly be baptized also come along to take part in a short thanksgiving for the birth of that baby.
Each Sunday evening there’s a service at 6.30pm called Evensong – worship for the evening. It lasts about an hour and includes prayers, readings, hymns, psalms and an anthem. The very good choir and organ have a key role. If you like choral music, then you will enjoy it. There’s no Communion. The sermon varies in length. Like the 8.00am service it is a quieter, more thoughtful and reflective kind of worship, following a regular pattern found in the Book of Common Prayer.
During the week there’s a service of Holy Communion at 11.00am on Wednesday and again at 12.45pm on Thursday. Both use the Book of Common Prayer and both take about 30 minutes. The service on Wednesday has a short sermon, with about 20 people attending. The Thursday service is for those who want a service during their lunch-break, with about 7 or 8 in attendance. Both take place in the chapel, to the side of the main structure, which gives it a more intimate feel.
Feel free to come to any of these services and try them out and see which suits you best.
Sunday 8.00am Holy Communion (said)
10.05am Family Communion
6.30pm Evensong
Wednesday 11.00am Holy Communion
1.00pm Weekly Service for Armed Forces Overseas (see below)
Thursday 12.45pm Holy Communion
On Saints' Days and at the main Church Festivals, additional services are held; as announced beforehand.
Five Evensong Sermons during Lent – Sundays at 6.30pm
Five sermons by the Rector, which try to set out the grounds for a reasonable Christian faith.
Sunday 21st February 2010 – Faith and Evidence
‘If faith cannot be proved, how can it be rational?’
Sunday 28th February 2010 – The God of Israel
‘Jesus the Jew, making sense of our Old Testament inheritance’
Sunday 7th March 2010 – The Resurrection of the Crucified
‘The knowledge that changed the world’
Sunday 14th March 2010 – The Hopes and Fears of all the Years
‘The joy which the world longs’
Sunday 21st March 2010 – The Life that Calls Us
‘This world and the life to come’
Six Wednesday Evenings – Ash Wednesday to 24th March 2010
The Church’s Sunday readings in 2010 ask us to focus on St. Luke’s Gospel.
This series of group study sessions aims to help us to enter into Luke’s mind,
to understand his purpose in writing, and so to discover how to read him.
Each Wednesday we begin in Church with Holy Communion, before moving to the
Church House (Bishop Ashton Room) at 8.00pm.
Sessions will be led jointly by the Rector and Gordon and finish promptly at 9.00pm.
Ash Wednesday 17th February 2010
Sung Parish Communion at 7.30pm – with imposition of ashes for those who wish to
receive them.
‘Luke’s tidy mind’
Wednesday 24th February 2010
‘The glory of thy people Israel’. ‘Luke and the never-ending story’
Wednesday 3rd March 2010
‘Luke’s rogues’ gallery’
Wednesday 10th March 2010
‘Knowing what is good for us’
Wednesday 17th March 2010
‘Gentiles and outsiders’
Wednesday 24th March 2010
‘They know not what they do’
Palm Sunday 28th March 2010
Palm Procession from the Blackburne Hall (Church House) at 10.05am;
Stainer’s Crucifixion at 6.30pm.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday (29th, 30th & 31st March 2010)
Said Holy Communion at 7.30pm (with address)
Maundy Thursday 1st April 2010
Parish Eucharist at 7.30pm.
Please note: the Preacher for the above four services will be David Sharples, who is the Archdeacon of Salford. He will preach on the following:
Monday – ‘Dinner in Bethany’
Tuesday – ‘The Hour has Come’
Wednesday – ‘And it was Night’
Thursday – ‘The foot-washing’
Good Friday 2nd April 2010
Mattins and Litany at 9.00am;
Good Friday Liturgy & Communion at 10.05am;
Ecumenical Walk of Witness begins from St. Marie’s, Bury at 12.00 noon;
Children’s Good Friday Activities from 12.00pm to 3.00pm (in Church House);
Devotion – ‘An Hour at the Cross’ 2.00pm to 3.00pm;
‘Come and Sing’ Messiah – rehearsals from 4.30pm; performance at 7.30pm
Easter Eve 3rd April 2010
Easter Vigil; New Fire; Renewal of Baptismal Vows at 8.30pm
EASTER DAY
Holy Communion at 7.00am (in Chesham Woods – leave Church House car park at 6.30am; unless raining);
Holy Communion at 8.00am;
Parish Eucharist at 10.05am – Easter egg hunt afterwards;
Easter Carol Service at 6.30pm.
Bury Parish Church, known as the garrison church of the Lancashire Fusiliers, has introduced a short weekly service to remember those who are serving their country in many dangerous parts of the world and especially to pray for those soldiers from the surrounding areas who have given their lives in such conflicts. Recently, local men who were soldiers in the Royal Regiment of the Fusiliers, have died and it was felt that a need existed to commemorate the fallen and their families, as well as to think of all those serving in the armed forces. The service of readings and prayers is being held every Wednesday at 1.00pm in the side chapel in the Parish Church. All members of the public are very welcome to attend.
