Bury Parish Church

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Flower Arrangers

Walking Group

Bell Ringers

Regular Sunday morning worshippers will have noticed that our Church bells were silent over the summer.  Although partly due to holidays, this was mainly brought about by personnel changes in the tower.

Our long-serving Tower Captain, Peter Coulton, decided to stand down at the beginning of July.  This took us by surprise and threw us into some disarray.  We were sorry to lose Peter and we would like to record our gratitude to him for his hard work over the years, his passing on of the gentle, and not-so-gentle arts of bell ringing, and his dedication to keeping the bells ringing at Bury Parish Church.  This was a job entrusted to him by the late Joe Porter and he took it seriously.  Not only did he supervise we ringers, he undertook much belfry maintenance work, raised the ringing chamber to something approaching luxury, tended the intricacies of the Church clock - he took great pride in ensuring that the chimes were absolutely on time for Remembrance Sunday and New Year's Eve, and took active interest in the entire fabric of the tower.  Peter has been thanked for this work and we will miss him.

Nevertheless, we were delighted when Marilyn Smith very kindly offered to take up the torch of leading our bell ringing.  Marilyn is currently the only person we have who is sufficiently experienced to take safe charge of the ringing chamber and teach new ringers, so we are particularly grateful to her for making the time to do this job.  She was duly appointed Tower Captain at the PCC meeting of 8th September.  Subsequently, bell ringing has resumed and we hope that you all enjoy hearing our bells again on Sunday mornings.  If you would like to have a go, we practise on Monday evenings from 7.15 to 8.30 pm.  You will be most welcome, but please ring Marilyn first (0161 764 3837).

We are a group of people who enjoy making the church look bright and festive. There are over a dozen of us who, on a weekly rota, arrange a pedestal of fresh flowers at the front of church ready for Sunday. When arranging flowers, we remain mindful of the church calendar and season.

For example, on Remembrance Sunday we arrange a display of red poppies; St George's Day we use red and white flowers and Gallipoli Sunday sees a display of red and yellow blooms.

Three times a year; Easter, Harvest and Christmas we decorate the twelve windowsills in church. Palm Sunday sees a striking display of exotic palms.

For Harvest we adopt a warm colourful theme using autumn colours of oranges, yellows and reds. We also have a large exotic display of fruit and vegetables.

Also at Easter and Harvest we hold a workshop on a Saturday morning when members of the congregation can come and learn how to arrange a basket of flowers. These are then displayed in church on the Sunday and are then taken out during the week by members of the congregation to the homes of our sick and elderly members of the church. There are usually about 80 baskets made.

Christmas arrangements usually incorporate  candles, which are lit for the Carol services during the week leading up to Christmas and on our Christmas Eve midnight Communion service and Christmas Day.

On Mothering Sunday, we make small floral gifts and distribute them during the three Sunday services to all the women in the congregation. We usually make about 280.

In addition to all the above we regularly arrange flowers for weddings, which can be booked through the Rector on Thursday evenings between 7pm and 8pm in the vestry.

For a donation, we will be happy to arrange a basket of flowers on the Memorial Table for anyone who wishes to remember a friend or relative whose name is in the Memorial Book. Cheques should be made payable to Bury Parish Church and sent for the attention of Margaret Hutchinson at The Parish Office, The Rectory, Tithebarn St. Bury, Lancs, BL9 0JR

A contact list, of ‘phone numbers and email addresses, is sent to every walker. Details of each walk appear in the relevant month’s parish magazine and on the parish website.

Please note that stout footwear must be worn at all times.

In case of extreme weather would you please phone the appropriate leader to ascertain whether the walk will take place.

Please come and join us – everyone is welcome.