The Revd Dr Sheila Beattie; Ordination

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Sheila, our Curate, is to be ordained priest by Bishop David on 22 June at Manchester Cathedral. Sheila will preside at the Eucharist for the first time at St Mary the Virgin, Bury, at 10.30am on Sunday 23 June. This will be followed by a “Jacob’s Feast” Bring and Share lunch in the Blackburne Hall. Can we encourage all readers of this to come along to the Sunday service and stay for lunch? It would be wonderful if as many as possible can join Sheila on this day.

And a note about the ordination. There will be fewer tickets available for each candidate being ordained. Sheila would like to provide for all but that, clearly, is not possible! She will approach a number of people with the opportunity to attend. Please do not be offended if you are not asked. What we do ask you to do is to come to her first Eucharist.

BRANCH LEADER'S LETTER FOR JUNE

Firstly, can I thank you all for the generous donations of Easter Eggs. We had enough to give each child at St Paul’s School an egg, as well as to all the children in Church on Easter Sunday at BPC and St Paul’s and the surplus eggs going to the Food Bank.

Secondly, I would like to thank all the members who helped to provide the Parish Lunch in May and also all who came along and supported it. I am pleased to report that the profit made from the event will go to Christian Aid.

I have received a Thank You card from St Paul’s School PTFA (Parents, Teachers & Friends Association) in appreciation of the support given with the task of the knitted Easter chicks. They made a grand total of £225 which is almost a £100 more than last year. The Thank You card is displayed on the notice board in Church.

At the meeting last month we heard from Peter Watson who took us on a trip down Memory Lane with his various pieces of memorabilia many of which bring a smile to your face but some you are pleased to leave behind.

In July we have Ann Milius who will show us the art of paper craft and hopefully by the end of the evening we will all have created a cute mouse or similar. I met Ann at the Greenmount Christmas Fair and she creates some wonderful items. I’m not really a craft person but I think even I can do this with her guidance.

The Bury Deanery AGM should have taken place on the 20th May at All Saints Church Hall but was cancelled at short notice. A new date is to be arranged for June and I will keep you informed.

The annual ‘United in Support’ joint fundraising event with Mothers’ Union and Union of Catholic Mothers is to take place on the 17th July @ Holy Cross College. Doors open at 7.00pm for a 7.30pm start. The cost is usually £5 including a pasty and peas supper. This is usually a great social evening and profitable fund raising event.

With Best Wishes

In love and friendship

Susan Sugden

Branch Leader

Rector's Letter for June

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS,

A friend of mine is a great bird watcher. Maybe you are? Some sit in their gardens and put out nuts and seeds and see what comes in; others put on boots and coats and march off to windy hills and lakes to watch the seasonal birds flock to their temporary resting places. Learning to sit still, to wait, to pay attention, is a great lesson in our urgent world where usually we decide what is going to happen.

I have found myself, increasingly over the years, becoming a “Jesus watcher”. By this, I mean that when I read the gospels, I find myself paying attention to what Jesus is saying, doing, how he is relating to all that is going on around him and how he reacts to people. The more I watch, the more I realise that I have made up much about Jesus, projected my ideas, the ideas of teachers, preachers and Sunday School, onto the man who is there in the writings. It is both sobering and exhilarating. Sobering, because I suspect that I, in turn, have passed on ideas that have no basis. Exhilarating, because it is as if I am meeting Jesus for the first time.

Jesus talks about the Kingdom. That is, he talks about life now, life as it is and life as it could and should be. And he invites his followers (disciples, me, you) to pursue the Kingdom. And he frames this in terms of seeking God, not engineering the world to our own ends by our own power.

Archbishop Justin, the Archbishop of Canterbury, drew on this idea when he and Archbishop John of York created the “Thy Kingdom Come” season, the 11 days from Ascension Day to Pentecost. This season is a season of prayer. They put it this way; Thy Kingdom Come is a global prayer movement that invites Christians around the world to pray for more people to come to know Jesus.

I invite you, then, to join me in a season of “Jesus watching”. Watching as we pray for people we know around Bury (who may even live in our houses!) who have not encountered Jesus, not found a deep awareness of his presence in our world. We shall be offering prayer cards for you to name the people you will be praying for at the end of May. Sometimes we think Mission is not our thing, beyond us or impossible. Here is an invitation to make possible God’s Mission among us.

A key date in the Church’s Calendar is the Feast of Pentecost. This year it falls on 9th June. We are going to make a big thing of this. We are inviting you to our Parish Eucharist at 10am when the congregation will be swelled with our Uniformed Organisations. After the service, there will be a Parish Garden Party and activities in the Rectory Garden. The Scouts are cooking reasonably priced food. I know that the temptation for some is to keep to your usual habits. We invite you to break those habits and make new friends at this party to celebrate the birth of the Church. There is an article about helping at this event on Page 6 of the Parish Magazine.

And then…. in the evening, we have Bishop Mark coming for the confirmation service at 6.30pm. We will be joined by folks from Ainsworth Parish. We have a whole bunch of candidates and it would be utterly fabulous if as many people from the congregation can join them at this service. It is a great reminder to each of you who are baptised and confirmed, of our steps on the journey of faith.

Sunday by Sunday we gather to worship the Lord in the Eucharist. Which suggests that the Eucharist is at the heart of our offering to God. Confirmation is often understood to be the gateway to communion (it’s not but that is a long story). And, in the Church calendar, there is one day when the Church invites us to pause and think about what it means to encounter the Lord in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. That day is Corpus Christi (formally called “Thanksgiving for the Institution of Holy Communion), the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. This year it will be 20 June. We will celebrate the Eucharist at 7.30pm. We invite you to come and join the Lay Assistants and those who are “on the altar”.

And finally, 30 June is the Bury Show in Burrs Country Park. Last year, I was delighted to observe the Mothers’ Union out in force, staffing the Lost Children’s tent and ministering to younger families. A wonderful event to round off this very full month.

And…. If you’re wondering about Sheila and her ordination on 22 June…. You will find more in the Parish Magazine.

With love and prayers,

 Julian

Rector

Lunchtime Concerts for June

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BRANCH LEADER'S LETTER FOR JUNE

Wow, what super weather we are enjoying at the moment. David tells me it will be hotter here than Tenerife for the Bank Holiday weekend. Enjoy!!

At the May meeting we were treated to a presentation by the Rector about his pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. We all found it very interesting and enjoyed hearing about Julian and Jackie’s experience. Many of us had seen the TV program shown recently with celebrities making the same journey but to hear about someone’s personal experience was brilliant.

At our June meeting we have Chris Foote-Wood talking about his trips around all remaining 56 UK pleasure seaside piers. I think it will be fun to see some familiar places.

I have been asked by St Paul’s School to thank all the ladies who knitted chicks for their fundraising event in March and the total raised was £129.

At the Deanery AGM, this year hosted by Christ Church, Walmersley it was announced that Christine Sharp is to be the new President of the Manchester Diocese when Cath Hilton completes her triennium later this year.  Also there is a vacancy for Deanery Secretary to assist Julie Lancaster (Deanery Leader). There are 4 Branch Leader meetings each year when minutes need to be taken as well as the AGM. If anyone is interested I can give you Julie’s contact details.

On 10th June it is the Mothers’ Union's turn to host  the  Parish  Lunch.  Offers  of  help  will be appreciated.                                                                                                                                

July will be very busy as along with our regular meeting on the 3rd July the following will be taking place:

Wednesday 4th (BPC) Trip to White Coppice Farm, Stones and Roses Garden, Chorley. Cost £8.00 inc. refreshments. Transport will be an extra charge.

Thursday 19th United in Support. Union of Catholic Mothers and Mothers’ Union are holding a joint fund raising event at Holy Cross College, Bury. Cost £5.00.

Saturday 21st MU Retreat 2018. Schoenstatt Centre, Kearsley. 9.30am - 4.00pm. Tickets £10.00.

Tuesday 24th (BPC) Afternoon Tea in the Blackburne Hall 1.00pm - 4.00pm.  Guest Speaker is Rev. Tony Roach. Tickets £5.00. Offers of help will be appreciated.

Sadly, I have to report that Keith Holland passed  away  recently  and  our  thoughts  and prayers are with Jean and family at this sad time.

In love and friendship

Susan Sugden
Branch Leader

Rector's Letter for June

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS,

One of my reflections, on reaching this point, six months in as your Rector, is that almost all of my experience here has been one of the Church’s seasons; Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter have absorbed almost all of the weeks since I arrived. June, for me, brings in my first exposure to what the Church now calls “Ordinary Time”. We used to refer to this as “Sundays after Trinity”, suggesting they are in some way an after-thought, a pause between the real focus of Easter and Advent. One of the possible derivations of the word “Ordinary” stems from the Latin word “ordo”, which is about time and order. The change brings with it the intriguing and spiritually liberating insight that in this long season our hearts could be open to God in an ordered and rhythmical way. I am looking forward to sinking into this long period of deepening discipleship. I hope you are too.

This season may be “ordinary” but what we are invited to do during it will be anything but ordinary. There is much that the Lord is calling us to do and much that we each can offer.

I write this letter at the end of the Thy Kingdom Come period of prayer for renewal. I wonder whether you took up the opportunity to pray during it? At a recent parish meeting, I was struck by the awkwardness and ambivalence expressed about prayer. Liturgical prayer, the formal prayer of the Church offered in worship, is something we find we can participate in. After all, it is part of the reason we come to church. But the group indicated that the idea of praying on their own was something that they were unsure about. I am sure that they are not alone. And I am equally sure that there are readers of this letter for whom prayer, personal prayer, is simply part of daily life.

One of the outcomes of this meeting was that we will look to resource, encourage and equip our community in the whole area of prayer. It would be, for me as your still new Rector, really helpful to know from people where prayer fits into their Christian life. If any would like a conversation, whether you have found a pattern and rhythm that sustains your spiritual life or whether you find this whole area simply so difficult that talk of prayer causes guilt to rise in your heart or whether you fit somewhere in the middle, the clergy would be really interested. There is a great, if imperfect, saying about church life which goes like this; “Pray as if it all depends on God; work as if it all depends on us”. Both parts of this saying bear more than a grain of truth, I believe. And if so, then the “prayer” part needs actioning. Watch this space.

Mission Action Planning is something that we have already flagged up. Essentially it is a process whereby the people of a parish can, under God, focus their activity. We need to tell Bishop David what we are going to do by the end of November. The process we are going to use to discern our priorities here at Bury Parish is this. A group of us are going away (all the way to Bircle!) to come up with a “short list” of ideas that we think will help us in mission and ministry. This event will be on 16th June. I have asked specific people to come but would be more than happy to extend the invitation to anyone who thinks that they have ideas worth exploring or have a willingness to invest time and energy to help us implement the plans. God, you see, has secreted wisdom and creativity among us all. Once we have our “short list” of ideas, we will present these to you, in worship, over coffee, in the magazine and finally in a decision-making occasion. Whatever we decide will be decided by all. Do pray for this process (see previous paragraph for details...).

2018 sees the centenary of the 1918 Armistice. We are going to host a “taster” event on Saturday 23rd June. At this event, various groups will be displaying what is going to happen over Autumn in Bury. There will be refreshments and poetry and things to see. We do hope that you will come. We do hope that you will bring a friend or two.

And finally, Sheila Beattie is to be ordained Deacon on 1st July. This is a really special event and we ask you to hold Sheila in your prayers. Manchester Cathedral being the size it is, we cannot, sadly, encourage you all to decamp that Sunday. However, on 8th July we will be welcoming Sheila formally in our worship at 10.30am (note time - this is so as to include St Paul’s). We do hope that whatever service you usually attend, you might move your calendar around so you can join us, both at the worship and also at the Bring and Share lunch afterwards.

With love and prayers,

 Julian

Rector