Rector's Letter for July

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS,

What has caught your attention? COVID-19? Black Lives Matter? The easing of Lockdown? The car-crash of the economy? Maybe none of these. Despite the constant narrow-casting of just a few news items, maybe your attention has been focussed closer to home; how your family has coped, the longing for a hug, a touch, a reminder of basic, earthy humanity? We are, after all, whole human beings, not just cyphers for a select, repetitious cycle of news.

For myself, although those key news items have held my attention, my prayers and my concern, as a priest, has been on another layer of concern these past weeks. Let me share it with you. Read More…

BRANCH LEADER'S LETTER FOR MARCH

Dear All,

Carol HIll

It is with deepest sorrow that I have to report that Carol Hill died on the 10th February. Carol was poorly and in hospital but her death came as a huge shock to us all. Carol was a much loved and valued member of the Mothers’ Union who will be missed so much. Our deepest sympathy and sincere condolences go to her family.

As usual our first meeting of the year is the AGM which was chaired by the Rector.

My thanks to all members for their support throughout the year and as usual there are changes to the committee as ladies complete their 3 year term of office. Read More…

Rector's Letter for March

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS,

“Australia is on fire” shouted the headlines. And, for once, the picture images and the maps and the messages from family who live down under, concurred. Storm Ciara hit the UK and flooding (again) impacted Bury, among other places. Water temperature under the icecaps is rising, the caps themselves are shrinking. Something is happening on a global scale.

The Pope wrote an encyclical, a formal letter, to the church in 2015. It was called “Laudato si’”, the subtitle of which was “care for our common home”. Read More…

BRANCH LEADER'S LETTER FOR FEBRUARY

Dear All,

May I wish you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year.

I hope you have all enjoyed a lovely Christmas as we did, but isn’t it nice to get back to a familiar routine. The Christmas Tree Festival in Church looked wonderful and thank you to the ladies who helped decorate and dismantle the MU tree. I will bring all the decorations to the AGM so you can claim back your badges and decorations.

27 attended the Christmas lunch at the Red Hall in December and this year in lieu of the secret Santa it was suggested you might like to give a voluntary donation to the Children’s Christmas party being provided by the Chesham Food Bank/Kitchen. The unit was very grateful for the total donation £117 and the Children enjoyed a lovely party. Thank you.

Our first meeting of the year will be as usual the AGM on Tuesday 4th February starting at 1.00pm. There will be some vacancies occurring on the committee as members complete their 3 year cycle so please give some thought to becoming a member of the committee. I promise you it isn’t too demanding and new people bring new ideas. Please think about it.

Can I offer a polite reminder that MU subscriptions of £23.50 are now due. If possible please pay by cheque made payable to Bury Parish Church MU.

March will be a busy month and here are a few dates for your diary.

Tues 3rd March meeting will also be a 1.00pm start and we have Joyce Heaton joining us speaking about 18 century Fashions and Customs.

Also in March there is the Women’s World Day of Prayer service at Christ Church, Walmersley on Friday 6th the time has to be confirmed but it’s usually 2.00pm start.

Lady Day 25th March (Wednesday) and if possible can MU members attend the 11.00am service that day.

Mothering Sunday 29th March and as usual Mothers’ Union will provide cakes to be served following the 10.00am service.

A copy of the latest MU Newsletter is on the notice board in Church. I will have other copies at the AGM.

Look forward to seeing you at the AGM

MU Festical September 2019

With love and friendship

Susan Sugden

Branch Leader

Rector's Letter for February

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS,

The phrase 2020 Vision is often used to describe what it is like to see perfectly. Those who know about eyes would say that this is not precisely the case. For the rest of us, it is a shorthand phrase that we use, either about sight or, more commonly, about insight, about how we perceive the world and the issues that lie before us. To have 2020 vision is to know what is happening and what will happen. And, at that point, we realise that none of us have that gift.

So, welcome to 2020. Welcome to a world where we sense that we do not know, with confidence, what the future will bring. Cultural observers have noted that the confidence that was around in the mid-1990s (‘Things can only get better’ was the song, if you recall, of New Labour), has evaporated. It has been replaced by hesitancy, distrust and unashamed flagrant lying. We are not in a good place.

What has the Christian faith to offer? What has it to offer to us, as individuals, as a Church and to our wider society?

Those who closely observe Jesus in the bible are clear that he did not know what the exact outline of his life would be. What they say is that Jesus was clear that his deep awareness of God as Father would not bring an easy life. It would bring tension, confrontation and conflict. What we read, when we open the bible, is the impact on others who were attracted to Jesus. There are two basic reactions.

Some found following Jesus too hard and bailed out. Yes, Judas but if you read the bible you may wonder where the 5,000, the 4,000, those healed, those touched, those who listened to the sermon on the Mount, went. They appear to have evaporated. Looking around the Church today, we may recognise this story all too well.

Some tried following Jesus, made a mess and tried again. Think Peter. Think all the other disciples. Even the women who popped up at the Resurrection, in Mark’s gospel, ran away afraid. It’s the trying again that is the point. You are reading this because they tried again. They stuck to the programme. So did you. So, one of the clues, for us as individuals, is the trick of simply turning up. The word in the bible for this is “Faithful”. It’s a good word. Perhaps a 2020 Word?

What about the Church? We rightly talk of ‘Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever’ (Hebrews 13.8). Our vocation is to hand on the Good News of God’s love. Our faithfulness as a Church, witnessing here in Bury, lies here. To come to Christ is to have your life transformed. To come to Christ is to become an agent of transformation in the world for his sake. And to “be Christ”, to live his life, is to stand up for those things for which Jesus stood; justice, equality, dignity, truth, peace, hope, reconciliation, often in the face of those who wished he would simply be quiet. A quiet Church is one that is not taking Jesus seriously.

And do we have anything to say to the world? Faith has been pushed to the margins of public discourse. ‘You have your beliefs and I have mine’ is a common mantra. This will not do. The values of the Christian faith, seen in that list above, should be the criteria we use to assess our world, our leaders, their statements and decisions. The values of our faith should drive us into conversations in our homes, places of work, pubs and gyms, into our town hall. We should be talking about education, social care, the justice system, health and well-being. The bible talks about the people of faith being like salt, yeast and light in the world. There is our mandate.

2020 Vision? Not clarity for the future but confidence in the presence of God who, when we pay attention, reveals himself in the disciplines of the faith.

With love and prayers,

 Julian

Rector

Branch Leader's Letter for December

Dear All,

Firstly I must thank all the Ladies who have supported the appeal for the knitted Christmas stockings for St Paul’s School. The response was brilliant and the target met very quickly and the school is very grateful to everyone. My thanks go also to all the ladies who knit for the Baby Units at the hospitals and also the ladies who support the children with reading at St Paul’s school.

At the November meeting we had Frances Brough, who manages the MU shop, join us, giving us the opportunity to purchase a MU diary, calendar etc. followed by a social evening with a quiz and conversation.

In December we are holding our Christmas celebration at the Red Hall on Tuesday 3rd Dec @ 12.30pm for 1.00pm.

The Bury Deanery Advent Service is to be held on Sunday 1st Dec at All Saints Church @ 2.00pm.

I have received the minutes and reports from the Autumn Council and I have put 2 copies on the notice board in Church and also a copy of the October Newsletter which includes a short reference to our 120th anniversary.

As usual we do not meet in January so the next official meeting will be the AGM on Tuesday 4th February which will start at 1.00pm in the Kay Room. I am again setting the March meeting for the afternoon with a start time at 1.00pm as the weather can be unpredictable at that time of year.

The MU annual subscription for 2020 will be £23.50 incurring an increase of 50p.

Lastly I want to thank the committee for their support throughout the year and also everyone who has supported our fundraising events. We are a fairly proactive branch and strive to play our part in the good work done by Mothers’ Union. By just being a member of MU helps the organisation continue the excellent work. A quote made by the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Right Revd Justin Welby in February 2019, ‘There is only one Mothers’ Union! It is the world’s oldest and largest women’s movement. It is one of the Anglican Communion’s greatest gifts to the worldwide church.

May I wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Peaceful Christmas and New Year.

MU Festical September 2019

My love and prayers to all

Susan Sugden

Branch Leader

Rector's Letter for December

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS,

Advent Calendars. I hope you have yours if you are an Advent Calendar person. There is something rather special about opening those doors, seeing what images appear. For a number of years. we had a calendar which invited us to read about examples of Christian witness and gave us a short prayer to say. Sitting around the meal table when we did this was rather special and more to do with God and less to do with chocolate. We mark Advent, now, by abstaining from eating meat. I can commend this. It makes you think about the season at every meal.

Advent is the gift of waiting on God. We generally are poor at waiting. And waiting for Christmas is particularly difficult. Just as children find it difficult to wait for Christmas, so adults in church want those carols now and get grumpy when we roll up to Church and are offered Advent hymns/carols instead. We are blessed to have an Advent Carol Service on 1 December. Before rushing on to what we might think of as the ‘main event’, come along and enter this season with its own richness of music and scripture.

That said, we are going to try something a little different this year with the Nativity. Instead of having it on the Sunday before Christmas, we are holding it on Parade Sunday (8 December). We want to offer something when the maximum number of younger families will be present. We will also be receiving toys which will be distributed by the Salvation Army. Do please bring something. Unwrapped, please. We hope that you will come and support this venture.

Last year we had our first Christmas Tree Festival. We asked groups within our Church community to decorate a tree and we enhanced our church with these. We are doing the same, only larger. We have invited local companies to bring a tree into church and we have asked them to donate a small sum to a homeless charity here in Bury. We hope, over time, to make this a significant part of our seasonal fund-raising and use this as an opportunity to welcome people into Church. As I write, an invitation has gone out to the Mayor of Bury to open the Festival on 10 December at about 6 pm. Our own Christmas Tree is arriving on Saturday 7 December. If you are able to flex a muscle and help us bring the tree into Church and manoeuvre it into position, we will be gathering on a Saturday morning. Closer to the time we will know the time we need to be in position. Do ask! Many hands and all that.

For many people outside the worshipping community, the Christmas Carol Service is one of those occasions when stepping inside Church is seen as safe. Our Christmas Carol Service is on 22 December at 6.30 pm and will be followed by mulled wine and mince pies. We encourage you to extend an invitation to family and friends to come and join us on this occasion. This is Church at its most accessible. Research tells us that people really like to be invited (and offered lifts!). We have little cards that we can give you to pass onto friends with the highlight services across the season. Do take and do give to those in your circle of friends. Your invitation might be just the gift that they need this Christmas.

We welcome lots of people to our Christingle on Christmas Eve. This service is at 3.30 pm. We need help in putting the Christingles together. Over the last couple of years, we have had a great team of volunteers gathering on 23 December in the Ashton Room. If you are able to join us, we will be in a creative mood at 9.00 am that morning. Previous occasions suggest that it will be all done by 11.00 am – lots of time to go and do that last-minute shopping, if that is your thing.

We have a tremendous cycle of services right at the start of the Christmas Season. Our Midnight Mass starts at 11.30 pm on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day itself we have a quiet 8.00 am Prayer Book Communion and will sing our hearts out at 10.00 am Sung Eucharist. The following days, St Stephen’s Day (Boxing Day) there will be a communion as there will be on St John’s Day (27 December) both at 10 am. Access will be through the Choir Vestry.

Note that these services are the start of the Christmas Season. That season, as the song says, has twelve days. If you receive our e-bulletin (and you can always ask via the Rector to have an e-bulletin) we invite you to search the internet for resources with the hashtag #FollowTheStar. We are each encouraged not to stop our observance of Christmas just because we have reached Christmas Day but rather to start our observance of twelve days closely following Jesus.

On the First Sunday of Christmas (29 December), there will be open house at the Rectory from when coffee finishes to 4 pm. Jackie and I invite you to drop in and spend time chatting to whoever is present. There will be nibbles and refreshment.

One of our key concerns is reaching out to those families whose children we have had the privilege of baptising. We are going to invite them to our Parade Service on 12 January when the Church celebrates the Baptism of Christ. The service will have all the usual elements to our Parade service with the addition of blending in some of the habits we are learning at Story-Telling Church. Your support, as regular members of the congregation, is really important. Let’s welcome those who come with the love of Christ.

As the new calendar year begins, so we step into a new era in the Diocese. There is a consultation on the Diocesan Vision at All Saints, Brandlesholme on the evening of 8 January. If you want to know what that’s about and contribute to the thinking, that is the occasion to attend.

So much going on. And sometimes, in all that, we can forget God, forget the reason why we gather, why we do all we do at Church. If you look elsewhere in this edition of the magazine, you will find a few electronic tools we are offering. But for those who like their time with God in “old school” ways, here’s a simple idea. As Christmas Cards arrive, take one or two to that place where you say your prayers. Hold them. Remember who sent them. Give thanks for that friendship over the years. And ask for the grace that you, like Mary, may carry Jesus into the world. No need to be sophisticated or complicated. Be a channel of love and hope, as Mary is for us. If you want more, then read Matthew’s Gospel. That will be the main source of our Gospel Readings this year from Advent to Christ the King. It’s long. So perhaps start at Matthew 5, which is the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Read that. Slowly. There will be plenty for the most spiritually hungry person to chew on for many weeks.

With love and prayers,

 Julian

Rector

Branch Leader's Letter for November

Dear All,

At our October meeting we enjoyed the company of Margaret Goodwin who is a much travelled lady. She entertained us with tales of her trip to Brazil and we all thoroughly enjoyed hearing about her experiences. We hope Margaret will join us again in the future so we can learn more about her worldwide travels. Thank you Margaret.

St Paul’s are again holding a Christmas fund raising event and have asked for our help to provide the small knitted Christmas stockings. If anyone is able to help with this task it will be much appreciated. Patterns available on the notice board in Church.

The Mothers’ Union Christmas celebration will be held at the Red Hall on Tuesday 3rd Dec @ 12,30pm for 1.00pm. At the October meeting after some discussion it was decided not to have the secret Santa but to buy something of equal value for the Food Bank. I have asked the Coordinators at the Food Bank to provide a list of suggested items to help us. I am hoping to have the list available at the November meeting.

The lunch is open to all members of the congregation and we will be delighted to have friends join us. The cost is £15 for 2 courses and £17 for three courses. Please ring the number below to ask about menu choices or book a place. Please can I ask for payment to be made by cheque to BPCMU.

At the November meeting we have Frances Brough who manages the MU shop at Church House joining us. She will bring a selection of items i.e. diaries, planners and cards etc. which we can purchase on the night. It is planned as a social evening with time for chat and possibly a quiz.

I will be planning the 2020 programme soon so if anyone has any suggestions regarding speakers do please share them.

MU Festical September 2019

My love and prayers to all

Susan Sugden

Branch Leader

Rector's Letter for November

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS,

Are you affected by SAD (Seasonally affected disorder)? Do the darker nights, the shorter days, play with your heart? Many people are. We seem to squeeze all sorts of things into the daylight hours and hunker down at night. The bible has lots to say about light and dark. The straightforward message seems to be that light is good and dark is, well, dark. Darkness seems to play into a sense of the absence of God. In the darkness, sin, death and the powers of Evil stalk us, apparently.

So, let me suggest some ways in which, in the dark evenings, we may challenge this narrative in our hearts and minds.

Light a candle. I know, old fashioned, superseded by electricity and, should you want to go down that line, a health and safety nightmare. But there is something immensely powerful about a flickering flame, dancing shadows and a sense of presence. Sitting quietly in a room with a flame burning, listening to some beautiful music (whatever that may be for you), having a visual reminder that light overcomes darkness, that God is and is present, may turn a nightly fear of fading light into a daily period of quiet joy.

Compline. Not Complan. That’s food for the body. Compline is food for the soul. It is the short service of Night Prayer, said before retiring to bed (or said in bed, for those who say their prayers there). It’s available in a variety of ways, in paper form (see House on the Rock books if you would like to pursue this), as podcasts, on the internet, on the phone. Short psalms and readings, brief prayers and that sense that we are handing over ourselves to God.

Intercession. When we pray, one of the things we are doing is joining in with a whole worldwide stream of prayers. To slowly go through our list of family and friends, to hold them before God, is to become aware that we are doing so with countless other people. Suddenly, we are not alone. Our quiet voice joins theirs.

Learn a prayer. One of my favourite night-time prayers was written by St Augustine. It goes like this;

Watch, O Lord, with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight, and give your angels charge over those who sleep.
Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ.
Rest your weary ones.
Bless your dying ones.
Soothe your suffering ones.
Pity your afflicted ones.
Shield your joyous ones, and all for your love’s sake. Amen.

I love it because it keys into the fact that, at night, those who are sick and those who are caring for them, can feel enormously isolated and those who spend so many of their night hours looking up at the ceiling can feel so burdened and lonely. It is a prayer for them. It puts my issues, whatever they are, into some sort of perspective.

And why this theme of prayer this November? Simply because the Church invites us to focus on saints in November and invites us to think about our place as counted among their number. God calls us to be beacons of light and hope and joy in this world, to be bearers of resistance against all those narratives of decay and despair. And to do that, we ourselves need to be in touch with him.

There is much going on, in daylight and in the hours of darkness. Have a flick through this edition of the magazine. Be tempted out to come to something that is not a usual part of your life. But don’t miss out on the opportunity the darker nights give you to reacquaint yourself with the Lord and with your inner life.

With love and prayers,

 Julian

Rector

Branch Leader's Letter for October

Dear All,

At our September meeting we enjoyed the company of our Rector, Julian, who talked about the Blessed Virgin Mary. We all knew far more at the end of the evening than we did at the beginning. Thanks Julian.

MU Festical September 2019

Also, my thanks go to Sheila who led the worship at the Deanery Festival. I must also thank all the members who helped in official duties on the day. It was a lovely day as we shared our 120th anniversary celebration with the Bury Deanery. At our October meeting we have Margaret Goodwin joining us. Margaret is a much travelled lady who will be speaking about her trip to Brazil.

The MU Christmas Lunch will be held at the Red Hall on Tuesday 3rd December 12.30pm for 1.00pm and a list will be available for names and menu choices from October with payments due in November. The costs are 2 courses £15 and 3 courses costing £17 including tea/coffee. The MU Christmas Lunch is open to guests so please feel free to invite family and friends to join us.

St Paul’s School are again planning a fund raising event before Christmas and are asking for our help to provide the small knitted Christmas Stockings. If you are able to oblige with this activity it would be much appreciated.

The Autumn Council is to be held on Saturday 12th October at Church House, Deansgate, @ 10.00am. I am planning to go and if anyone would like to join me you will be very welcome.

MU 2020 Diaries and Planners are now available to purchase and Frances Brough (MU Shop Manager) is bringing the shop to our November meeting. Diaries cost £4.15 and Planners £3.25 each

Lastly our thoughts and prayers are with Elizabeth Holiday and family on the sad loss of Harold.

My love and prayers to all

Susan Sugden

Branch Leader

Rector's Letter for October

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS,

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Among the various articles in this month’s edition of the Magazine, you will find one by Hannah Lane. Hannah is an ordinand, a candidate for the priesthood. The way we train people for anything changes over time. Apprentices used to spend seven years watching and slowly doing whatever trade they were learning. Now they go off to work and have day release woven into their contract. Teachers used to learn their subject, go to teacher training college and then hit the classroom. Now, one option is to plunge straight into work once their subject studies have been completed. When I was training for the priesthood, the usual route was to drink deeply from the tradition in two/three years residential formation; some folks were trained, as indeed Sheila Beattie was, by evening, weekend and weekly study periods. Now there is a new kid on the block (actually an 11 year old kid); St Mellitus.

Now, as you all know, St Mellitus was the first Bishop of London (d 624 AD) and the theological college which takes his name was founded for ordinands in London and Chelmsford Dioceses. There are a number of St Mellitus centres, the North West one being in the grounds of Liverpool Cathedral. The training route is different from previous approaches. Students receive teaching a day a week. They study two days a week at home. And they then spend the rest of their time (barring a rest day), in the parlance of the training, Sunday + two days on placement;. And Hannah has come here on placement.

What does this mean? It means, above all, that Hannah is here to learn. She is not the “finished article” (I’m pretty sure that none of us are that). Whereas Sheila took up her role among us as one who had been through training, Hannah is learning; learning about the tradition, the faith, through study and writing and thinking and praying; learning about the practice of ministry and priesthood, through watching, and trying and asking.

Which is where you, dear reader, come in. If you’ve done the maths, you will have spotted that half Hannah’s training is with us. We have the task of helping shape and form Hannah, to share with her the hopes and expectations we hold as to what a clergy person should be like, what we expect from them, need from them, would like from them. Hannah will learn as you share with her those ideas that float around in your head. In other words, you are key to her growth and development. Crudely put, the vicars we get in the future will be the vicars we deserve because they will be the vicars we ourselves have created. It’s quite a thought. No pressure, then.

So, can I ask you to make yourself known to Hannah? Make her feel welcome. She is the guest, we the host. Our task is to approach, to begin the conversation, to talk, to invite her into our spaces, our homes, to help her understand why this faith community means what it means to us. Having Hannah around will challenge us to think about why we come here. We will need to learn to put those thoughts into words.

Hannah and I will be meeting regularly as part of her training. I look forward to hearing her experience of life among us. Her days around Bury will be Wednesdays and Fridays.

With love and prayers,

 Julian

Rector

Rector's Letter for September

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS,

September. The month when, whatever age we are, there is a sense of “Back to School” after a long break.

New shoes, new blazer, new shirt. And, as you will read in this edition of the Magazine, lots of new initiatives. I was reading an article from the Bury Times in the Bury Archives written by the Bishop of Manchester (The Rt Revd Patrick Rodger) who installed Canon Smith back in 1966. In it he wrote about the vital importance of town centre churches being places of lively Christian witness and recognising, even then, that the culture was changing and that places like our own parish, which have few residents, have the potential to become more like museums to the past than flourishing Christian communities serving the present and contributing to the future of our town.

Our initiatives are all around who we seek to share the Gospel in this generation. From encouraging us not to drift from Sunday worship straight home, but to get to know each other, to seeking to tell bible stories to infants and their families; from encouraging locals to come in and explore our amazing church to offering space to remember loved ones, we are grateful to all those who generously are enabling us to continue in that ministry and mission to which the Lord calls us. Do read, pray and, where possible, offer your gifts of time and creativity.

The Diocese is not standing still, either. Manchester Diocese is in a challenging place at the moment; financially we are struggling; fabric-wise, many of our buildings are showing their age; numerically, like churches across the western world, we are discovering that the things of faith are edged out by our increasingly self-absorbed world. Each of us will have stories of family members, brought up in church, who no longer attend.

One of the things the Diocese is doing is looking at its patterns of work. It has made redundancies in Church House. It is looking to see what areas of life are essential. And, in this, it is looking at the strategic shape of the Church. Presently, for instance, we are part of Bury Deanery, one of nineteen deaneries across the Diocese (a deanery is a group of churches that work together, pray and think together). In the future, this will change. Consultations are taking place. It is a reminder that nothing is fixed. Remaining the same in this quickly changing world leaves any organisation as an irrelevance.

Part of our evolution here is the addition of three members of the Ministry Team. Dawn Wight, Jackie Heaton and John Vale are to become Authorised Lay Ministers on 22 September. The service, during which they will be authorised by the Bishop, will be in the Cathedral. We will hear more about their work and responsibilities in future editions of this Magazine. Please pray for them.

The Church of England is part of the Anglican Communion. And the Anglican Communion has committed us to play our part in the “Five Marks of Mission”. This is something that we don’t talk about very much. We tend to think that we have “done church” if we offer worship and read the bible. The Five Marks push us to think in much wider terms about what it means to be a Christian Community. Look them up if you want to know more. I want to ask you to think about the Fifth Mark of Mission. It says this; ‘To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth”. So, here’s a question for all of us to think about; how can we do that? How can I do anything to contribute to the “integrity of creation”? There are things we can do at home; where do we get our energy from? How many miles do we have to travel? Do I really need this food/these clothes/this item?

Banksy’s art is prophetic. It makes us think about our own place in the life of the world and whether we, too, are motivated by the values that shape us (Gospel values, I hope) to play our part in tackling the earth’s situation. Sometimes, in the bible, God uses those beyond the circle of faith to teach those who claim faith something about what it means to live. Perhaps Banksy is one of those people?

Have a great September.

With love and prayers,

 Julian

Rector

Revd Dr Sheila Beattie was ordained priest - A Joyous Occasion

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It seems like only yesterday since I was writing about my ordination to being a deacon. The year has certainly flown by! They say that time flies when you are having fun and, looking back, I have certainly enjoyed my first year of curacy.

As ordination to priesthood approached, I must confess that I did have reservations, doubts about worthiness. Perhaps I should take what appeared to be the easier option – to simply remain a deacon. Despite these reservations, God kept nudging me as God seems prone to do.

Taking advantage of being on retreat prior to the ordination, I took the opportunity to do some reading. In doing so, I came across a reminder to the effect that priesthood was a joyous and fantastic privilege; when Jesus ate and drank with tax collectors and prostitutes, it was not a duty. It was utter delight in their company, in their very being. When Jesus touched the untouchable, it was not a clinical gesture, but the hug of joy. And what better role model can we have than Jesus himself. This made me realise that focussing on my anxieties was all about self when instead I should be looking forward with excitement to sharing the love and joy of our Lord.

It was lovely to share the celebration of both the Ordination Service and the presiding at my first Eucharist in June with so many of you. You have all played a part in the journey so far, so it feels right that we should be embarking on the next stage together!

With every blessing

Sheila

Rector's Letter for August

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS,

The Revd Dr Sheila Beattie was ordained priest on 22nd June and presided at the Eucharist for the first time on 23rd June. If we have been going to church for a bit, we can forget what this means (other than someone else will take the service) and if we are new to church, the nuance of what a priest is (as opposed to the generality of someone in a clerical collar). So, I thought I would share with you an edited version of the sermon preached on the occasion of Sheila’s first Eucharist.

Yesterday, Sheila was ordained Priest. Sometime priestly ministry is described as ABC Ministry. Sheila is to call us to repentance and to declare in Christ’s name the absolution and forgiveness of their sins. That’s the A bit. Absolve. She is to bless the people in God’s name; that’s the B bit. Bless. And she is to preside at the Lord’s table; that’s the C bit. Consecrate.

When we read the New Testament, what we begin to see, once we get over its strangeness, is how those early followers of Jesus tried to organise their lives together. We read about what they decided they could eat, how to deal with arguments, debated issues of money, health, behaviour, sex, gender, failure, hope, the future and a whole bunch of topics.

And one of those topics was; who could make those decisions in the first place? So, we read about various sorts of ministries (preachers, teachers, prophets), hear about various specifically named people (Peter, James, John, Mark, Titus, Timothy, Barnabas), listen in to major regional meetings, learn about key people, often women, with houses big enough to host the church. And then the New Testament stops.

And, as the New Testament stops, so the history of Church, the ekklesia, the gathering, continues. Christian history is full of writing; writing about Jesus, about God, about Church, prayer, ethics, pastoral care. The question of how church should organise itself, a question going all the way back to Paul’s letters, was also hammered out.

Bishops (‘people with oversight’ is what the word means) appear to take charge of Christians firstly in cities, then across a bigger area. With growth comes the need for order; bishops can’t do everything, so they hand out responsibility to others. The writings of the early Church Fathers talk about priests, deacons, sub-deacons, and so on. Over time, the writers clarified their specific function in the life of the Church.

What we are left with, in the Western church, in our heritage within the Anglican Communion, are the threefold structures of Bishop, Priest and Deacon. Sheila, as a Deacon (she’s still a deacon) and as a Priest, is here to make Christ known through the ministry of ABC.

Absolve. I know it’s old school, in these days when people are relaxed about sin, economical with the truth, careless with facts, unprincipled with integrity, but the ministry of absolution, of handling the sacrament of reconciliation, goes hand in glove with a vocation to call us to humility, transparency and goodness. The Church is honest about human frailty and this ministry is part of that.

Sheila, you will notice that this ministry requires you to announce that, in Christ, God has set us free. This is your place in the ecology of the Church; to announce the power of the Cross. It is Good News.

Be bold. This is not about you. It is about God.

Bless. Which means, among other things, to set aside for God; to declare holy; to transmit something of the holiness of God onto other people or things.

Sheila, when you bless us, hear this; that people need to hear that the world is richer, more intoxicating, more resonant with the things of God than we give credit.

To announce God’s presence, his abiding love, joy and delight in creation, is a great ministry. It speaks of a faith that is confident that God is, and that he is desiring to channel his grace into the world. You, for all your humanity, are one of those gateways through which the Lord will come.

Be bold. Announce this. This is not about you. It is about God.

Consecrate. Sheila, you are about to set apart these tokens of our daily life, the bread and wine, ordinary stuff, and present them to us as divine presents, holy food, real presence.

You will have spotted that Christians have become over-excited about what precisely consecrate means, what happens, who can do it and so on.

You will have spotted that in our parishes, St Mary’s and St Paul’s, we frame this consecration with particular things; vestments, robes, music, gesture, candles, movement, body language, in an attempt to convey meaning beyond the limitation of words.

You will have spotted that we do this, not because there are not enough words or too many words but that words, in the end, fail.

You have spotted that God spotted that he chose to circumvent words and come in person, in a form we can understand, to present himself to us in the Christ child and on the Cross.

Sheila, it is a great ministry to which you have been called, this ministry of consecration. You will be a channel of transforming grace.

Help us. Help us hear the words that the Church has given us. Speak them with passion, and faith and a constant level of utter surprise.

Help those of us who find listening to words much more difficult than watching gestures by boldly enriching our worship with extravagant actions that speak of an extravagant God.

ABC. It makes it sound easy. It’s not. But, like laying the foundations of language with those letters, may you, as you begin your priestly ministry among us, find your route to convey something of the transformative grace of God that comes to us through the Church, through the priestly channels in the life of the Church, through the sacraments of the New Covenant, through you in person, as our priest in these parishes.

Have a conversation with Sheila. Ask her about the day. Ask her about presiding at the Eucharist, about exercising this ABC ministry. And then ask her about her ministry more generally. And, as you do, expect her to ask you about your ministry. As a priest, she has this particular ABC element. She shares with us all the vocation to live the life of the baptised people of God.

With love and prayers,

 Julian

Rector

BRANCH LEADER'S LETTER FOR AUGUST

Dear All,

At the July meeting to celebrate our 120th anniversary we had a celebration cake. Don’t fret if you missed out on a slice as there will be another cake at the Deanery Festival in September.

Christine Sharp also joined us at the July meeting and gave a presentation on the work MU do within the Prison Service supporting families. New family friendly areas have been created for the children to play during visiting times.

On August 6th we are hosting an Afternoon Tea at 1.00pm The tickets cost £5 plus on the day we are asking everyone to bring a donation for the Food Bank. There is always a heavy demand on Food Banks but in the School holidays it must be greater than usual. Tickets are available on Sunday mornings in Church or ring the number below. Profits from the event will go to causes in line with Mothers’ Union aims and objectives.

The Bury Deanery Festival will take place on Sunday 8th September @ 2.30pm at Bury Parish Church. By hosting the Festival it gives us the opportunity to celebrate our special anniversary with all the Mothers Union members in the Bury area. We are planning to have light refreshments and a celebration cake following the service.

Can I thank all the Ladies who support the children at St Paul’s school with reading and say how much this is appreciated by the School. I hope you all enjoy the long summer break and look forward to seeing you all back there in September.

The annual joint fundraising event with the Union of Catholic Mothers and MU was held at Holy Cross College in July and was well supported. 7 Ladies from our branch went along and enjoyed a lovely social evening. Proceeds will be divided between the 2 organisations.

With Love and Prayers to you all

Susan Sugden

Branch Leader

Rector's Letter for July

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

Every so often, I see or hear people talk about their summer reading. It sounds lovely. It sounds as if they have rearranged their commitments and given space and time to sit down to read and think, to enter into a different world and, for a period, zone out. Perhaps you recognise this? Perhaps you put a book/tablet/kindle-type thing in your holiday bag, so you can sit and soak up the sun and read? As I say, it sounds lovely. It is not something, I admit, that I have ever been very good at.

What I like about it is the idea of absorbing other people’s stories, other people’s ideas, insights and vision. For myself, I garner these from books (though not enough) but more often and, personally, more effectively and efficiently, by listening. If you see me with earphones on, it’s because I am absorbed in an audio-world. I recently discovered that Bury Library Service offer spoken books for its members. What joy.

And I like listening to speakers. In late summer, we are off to a Christian Festival centred around the themes of Art, Justice and Faith. For some people, the highlights are to be found in music or dance or worship or theatre or the arts. For me, it’s people talking; activists wrestling with the environment/poverty/justice/migration, authors talking about their novels, theologians exploring the faith, journalists investigating the boundaries of truth.

I go occasionally to hear a speaker. Recently I heard Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, talk about “What does National Identity mean?” Because we live in such fractious times, I thought I would share his ideas with you. You might want to talk with someone else about what he said. You might want to start a conversation.

We are not born with a National Identity. It is something we learn. And we have learned it in different ways over history. Look at Genesis after the flood. We find images of all the nations moving out to cover the earth, all flowing from one family. Different nations but all equal. As history moved on, so the “group” or tribe to which someone belonged began to sense it was special. Think about the Israelites. Or, if you read the oldest history book written about Britain, by Bede, you find the Saxons thought they were pretty amazing.

If those Saxons identified themselves as belonging to a nation (essentially the word means “where I was born”) it was not the most important form of identity. It mattered more who your Lord was, who you paid rent to and (in Britain) that you were a member of the Church. Obligations and connections to people you knew mattered way more than any sense of belonging to a “Nation”.

When Nation States began to appear (Henry VII for us in England), then the need for centralised control of money, ideas and commitment also appeared. The Church of England is a complex thing and one of its drivers is controlling people’s morals (to God) and loyalty (to the crown). This idea lasted until about 1975. Quite recently, in other words. Then things happened. Mainly economic things.

Globalisation. A nation can’t control how money or goods or people move – except through extreme force. Boundaries have dissolved. And we know this because, even if we could erect barriers, global changes, like the environmental changes, technology, health, human aspiration, don’t obey maps. Global changes bewilder those of us brought up with maps on our school walls and those committed to the idea that we can choose things just for our own nation.

One reaction to all this has been to try and define “our nation”. Nations with many different ethnic groups (think Spain and the Basque Region or Turkey and Armenia) try and suppress the differences, suppress minority language and culture and faith and traditions. Much violence has flowed from this. Attempts to require nation and state to be the same is a doomed project.

Williams, after diagnosing the problems we face and how we have arrived at them, sketched out possible ways forward. He noted the way China and the USA want to turn the clock back and protect their borders. He noted that global efforts at cooperation (like the United Nations) are not efficient. He warmed to regional patterns of cooperation (like the EU!). And he really warmed to bottom-up movements, citizen assemblies, giving voice to those who feel they are unheard. In this, he noted that we often blame “them”. There needs to be, for each of us, a personal involvement. To do that, to be personally involved, we need to articulate what we think our vision for society should be. And this is where our faith tradition has something to offer the wider society.

We need, he said, to recognise and not be embarrassed by a sense of kinship, of brother/sisterhood. To pretend we belong to the ‘human race’ without also noting that we belong to a sub-set of that, would be nonsense. For me, it is a gift to be a white, northern, British male, for instance.

However, we do belong to the human race; and that means we belong to a wider community where people are different, have different traditions, languages, faith, etc. We need to be confident of our own traditions so that we can contribute to a wider community. To draw on St Paul’s body language (1 Corinthians 12), it is great to be an eye but we need feet and arms too. I am a better person, more whole, more likely to thrive and flourish, when I welcome, work with and appreciate my neighbours who are different to me.

Which brings us back to the “Table of the Nations” in Genesis. We might inhabit different parts of the world but we all can trace our roots back to one source. We forget that at our peril.

With love and prayers,

 Julian

Rector

BRANCH LEADER'S LETTER FOR JULY

As I’m writing this, the sky is grey and rain is threatening but I hope by the time you are reading it Summer has well and truly started. If you have a Summer holiday planned I hope you enjoy some warm and sunny weather.

At our last meeting we enjoyed a social evening with Ann Milius showing us the art of paper craft using books. She was quite impressed with our efforts as I was. My hedgehog looked remarkably like a hedgehog.

In July we have Christine Sharp joining us. Christine is the new MU president of Manchester Diocese. I’m not sure what her topic will be but she has been very involved in developing a partnership with MU and the Prison Service to establish family space and services. She has worked hard to put this into practice, securing a generous donation from a leading toy shop to stock the play area. I’m sure she will have new ideas for the future of MU to share too.

Also in July the Mothers’ Union and Union of Catholic Mothers are again holding a joint fund raising event at Holy Cross College. It will take place on Wednesday 17th July starting at 7.30pm and the cost is £5 which includes a Pasty/Peas supper. Please take your own drinks. Tickets are available from Holy Cross College office – do let me know if you want a ticket. This is usually a good social evening giving us the opportunity to meet up with members of other Branches.

The Archdeaconry Festival is to take place on Friday 9th August at St Anne’s Church Tottington @ 7.30pm. Only the Deanery Banner is to be paraded. The new Bolton Archdeaconry President is Mrs Ruth Taylor.

Advance notice of our Afternoon Tea on Tuesday 6th August. Please see separate notice. This event is open to all the congregation and friends. Tickets will be on sale from July.

With Love and Prayers to you all

Susan Sugden

Branch Leader

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

Rector's Letter for May

DEAR SISTERS AND BROTHERS,

May Day (in this case, 1 May, not the Bank Holiday) triggers all sorts of rather wonderful, earthy, deeply rooted traditions; choirs singing from church roof tops, Morris Dancing, May Queens, Beehive moving. In some Church traditions, May is observed as the Month of Mary. The whole “May Queen” thing is a bit of an echo of that. Mentioning Mary, I have found over the years, triggers all sorts of reactions about church attendees. Some find great encouragement in the person of Mary; her “yes” to God’s invitation to make space for his purposes in her life, her care of Jesus, our willingness to learn from her son and, at the Cross, Jesus’ returning of all that affection by making provision for her. Others find any talk about Mary rubbing up against half-understood, barely articulated but deeply ingrained prejudice, as if, somehow, Mary is a paid-up member of the “other lot”.

Being Rector of a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary for the first time, and being interested in these sorts of reactions, one of the things I did on arrival is to look to see how our church’s architects and craftsman responded to the invitation to create a Christian worship space dedicated to her. Here’s what I think I find. I think

I find that the artists who wove their skills into building our church found Mary utterly fascinating and present her, in the grandeur of our place of worship, as the channel through which we, mere humans, can approach the Lord. At the high Altar and in the South Chapel, at the visual centre of the Altar pieces, we find Mary holding Jesus. It is as if she is saying; come here and meet my Son.

How do you feel about this? Where is Mary in your spirituality? If it helps, this is approximately where I find her to be in my spiritual life. Mary sets before me an example; an example of prayer and openness to God’s will and learning from the things Jesus taught her. And an example of evangelism, of pointing others to Jesus, just as she did at the Wedding Feast. And an example of compassion, of staying with those in pain and sorrow, just as Mary stayed and watched her son die. Do I pray to Mary? I do, sort of. I ask for her prayers (‘pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death’ as the Hail Mary puts it) in the same way that I ask for your prayers and the prayers of the saints. Christian spirituality is a corporate thing; it’s ‘us and the Lord’, never ‘me and the Lord’. The New Testament is written with verbs in the plural, not singular and the New Testament tells me that nothing, not even death, separates us from the love of God – which is why it makes utter sense to ask the saints to pray with us and for us. On Saturday 4th May I am going to a Shrine of Mary outside Preston with a group of fellow priests. If anyone fancies joining me (I’ve not been there before), do ask.

We held our Annual General Meeting and our Annual Parochial Church Meeting on 7 April. We elected Pat Webber and Eric Duckworth as our Wardens. I cannot tell you how delighted I am about this. We also elected a new PCC. We do ask you to pray for them as we approach new tasks in our life together. The Church Wardens are formerly sworn into office at the Archdeacon’s Visitation, which falls on 23 May. The service will be at St John and St Marks, off Walmersley Road. A gentle reminder that Sidespersons are formerly invited to this service.

At the end of May, we enter into this new Season of Thy Kingdom Come. This starts on Ascension Day (30 May) and ends on Pentecost Sunday (9 June). What is this season about? Thy Kingdom Come is a global prayer movement that invites Christians around the world to pray for more people to come to know Jesus. What started in 2016 as an invitation from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to the Church of England has grown into an international and ecumenical call to prayer. In other words, we here in Bury Parish (or St Mary the Virgin, Bury, to give us our real name [see above]), are invited to actively participate in a period of prayer.

Praying for what and for whom?

• For ourselves, that we may know God more profoundly

• For our family, friends and neighbours, that they may encounter Christ through us.

• For our world, that it may be transformed by the presence of Christ.

See elsewhere in this edition of the Magazine about what we are inviting you to do.

And finally, just a heads up about the priesting of our curate, the Revd Dr Sheila Beattie. Sheila is to be ordained priest on Saturday 22 June. She will preside at the Eucharist on 23 June at 10.30am. This will be followed by a ‘Jacob’s Feast’. We will be joined by the godly folks of St Paul’s, Bury. Please pray for Sheila as she prepares for her ordination.

With love and prayers,

 Julian

Rector