Rochdale Faith News: Saturday, February 25

St Andrew's Dearnley

St Andrews, Dearnley will be back to normal when their contributor is back from holiday in time to submit his weekly round-up for the March 11 paper.

If you have any queries please contact Rev Rachel Battershell on (01706) 378466, warden Janice Perkins on 077303 67919 or warden Christine Longhurst on 07766 404282. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

The Benefice of Littleborough

The First Sunday of Lent.

Sunday, February 26:

• 9am: Holy Communion at St. Barnabas, Shore.
• 10.15am: Holy Communion at Holy Trinity.
• 11.30am: Holy Communion at St. James, Calderbrook.

Lent Groups 2023:

They will begin on Tuesday, February 28 and will run for five weeks.

• Tuesday: 1pm at St. James, Calderbrook.
• Wednesday: 10am at St. Barnabas, Shore.
• Thursday: 1pm at St. Barnabas, Shore.
• Thursday: 7.15pm on Zoom.

There are sign-up sheets in church. If that is not convenient please contact the Church using the details below.

Everyone is welcome. www.cofe-littleborough.co.uk Facebook - The Benefice of Littleborough. Twitter at: @cofelittleboro1. Telephone: 01706 375 322 and leave a message.

St Luke’s Church, Deeplish

St Luke’s Church, Deeplish will hold a Holy Communion service on February 26 at 10am.

As this is the first Sunday in Lent we will follow the service with our usual Lent Lunch.  This consists of home made soup, bread, cheese, jam, tea or coffee.

Monday, February 27: Bible Study, 10.30 am in the church side room. This is open to anyone who wants to find out more about the Bible in a friendly, informal setting.

Wednesday, March 1: 11am, Morning Praise service in church.

Thursday^, March 2: Ladies only Zumba at 10am. It costs £3 and you need to book, please contact Catherine.szymanskyj2@yourtrustrochdale.com or ring 07814 712 271.

We look forward to welcoming our regular members and anyone who would like to join our very friendly, caring congregation.

St Chad's and St Mary in the Baum

For over 800 years, St Chad's, on Sparrow Hill, overlooking the town centre, has been Rochdale's Parish Church.

With our sister church, St Mary in the Baum, we provide mainly traditional forms of Anglican worship, and you are warmly welcome to join us on Sundays and during the week. Children's activities are available during the Sunday services, and refreshments are served afterwards.

Tomorrow, Sunday, February 26, is the 1st Sunday of the penitential season of Lent, as we look forward towards Easter.

The Eucharist, with hymns, is at St Mary's at 9.15am, and Choral Eucharist at St Chad's at 11.15am. Fr Darren Quinlan is the celebrant and preacher at both services.

Each Monday, at St Mary's, the Red Cross provides help for refugees from 10am until 2pm. Refreshments are available and admission is free.

On Wednesday next, March 1, at St Mary's at 12.30pm, the Toad Lane Lunchtime Concert features Eccles Community Choir, with Angela Rowley, conductor. Admission is £6.

On Thursday next, March 2, at St Chad's, Morning Prayer is at 10am. A Place of Welcome is at St Chad's from 10.30am until noon, with coffee, cake and fellowship. Admission is free.

On Saturday next, March 4, at St Chad's at noon, a Lunchtime Concert features Dimitra Ananiadou, violin, and Richard Whalley, piano, with music by Bach, Sarabanda, Beethoven and Kreisler. Admission is £6 including light refreshments from 11.30am.

Sunday next, March 5, is the 2nd Sunday of Lent. The Eucharist, with hymns, is at St Mary's at 9.15am, when the celebrant and preacher is the Rev Sue Morgan.

Choral Eucharist is at St Chad's at 11.15am, when the celebrant and preacher is Fr Darren Quinlan. A Lent Course is held at the Vicarage, Clement Royds Street, for five weeks on Thursdays at 7.30pm beginning on March 2. It is based on the Nooma series and all are welcome.

The Church of England invites us to join in one or more of the following Lent Challenges: to pray each day; to try to follow a Lenten study guide; to join a Lent group; to donate 40 items to the Food bank (one for each day of Lent); to give to the DEC for Turkey/Syria; and to try to be more sustainable (eg recycling).

The Vicar asks us to continue to pray for Ukraine. The first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine will be commemorated on Friday, February 24 at 10.45am outside 1 Riverside, Smith Street. There will be a Memorial Service and Requiem Mass today, Saturday, February 25, at 10am at the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Yorkshire Street.

The Asian Christian Fellowship usually meets at St Chad's at 1.30pm on Sundays.

St Mary’s, Balderstone

It’s the last Saturday of the month which means one thing at St M’s - our Women’s breakfast 9am to 10.30am in the parish room.

We will be looking at the theme of “Promises Kept” throughout this year. This morning there will be a short talk by Elizabeth Holme on ‘The Fall: Broken by Rebellion’.

Take some ‘she’ time! All ladies are welcome for a free breakfast, and a time of fellowship together.

If you are nervous of coming on your own, why not bring a friend with you. There is no charge for the breakfast.

Tomorrow, our morning service starts at 10.30am. We’ll be continuing our “Foundations for Life” sermon series and Rev Ben Wilkinson will be exploring the topic of ‘Suffering & Hope’.

We’ll be looking at Genesis chapter three, verses eight to nineteen and Romans chapter eight verses eighteen to twenty-five. We are also excited to celebrate the christening of one of our church family.

Sunday school will be available. Light refreshments are served in the parish room after the service.

The new Youth Bible Study meets tomorrow afternoon. The theme this week is ‘Grace’.

For safeguarding reasons if parents, could please contact Rev Ben Wilkinson in advance via email at vicar.balderstone@gmail.com or our Facebook page to register their young people or for more information.

SMUrfs (St Mary’s Under Fives) returns this week. SMurFs meets on Tuesday afternoon 1.30pm-3pm in the parish room. There will be all the usual stay and play fun and this week we’re celebrating SMurFs 25th birthday so there may be a few treats and surprises too.

Midweek Bible Studies meet on Wednesday evening, 7.20pm-9pm, in the building or via Zoom or Thursday evening, 7.20pm-9pm, Zoom only. All are welcome.

For further information please get in touch by email stmarysbalderstone@gmail.com or Facebook.

If you would like to submit your news for inclusion on InYourArea and in the Rochdale Observer print edition, fill in the form here. Please note the deadline for submissions for inclusion in the newspaper of the same week is now 4pm each Wednesday.

Get all the latest news, updates, things to do and more from Rochdale, Lancashire's dedicated InYourArea feed.