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Rochdale Faith News: Saturday, June 10

This week's faith news from the Rochdale area

St Luke’s Church, Deeplish

St Luke’s Church, Deeplish will hold a Holy Communion service on June 11 at 10am.

Monday, June 12: Bible Study - 10.30am 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, June 14: 11am - Morning Praise service in the side room of church

Thursday, June 15: 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 are a friendly group and have space for new members.

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

Littleborough United Reformed Church

Brenda Jones will be leading our worship tomorrow at 10.30am, please join us and stay for coffee afterwards. On Wednesday we have Chair Assisted Yoga at 11.30am until 12.30pm

On Thursday, Tai Chai 1.30pm until 2.30pm. On Saturday, July 1 we are holding a coffee morning 10am until noon, admission £1.

St Chad's and St Mary in the Baum

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

Children's activities are available during Sunday services and refreshments served afterwards.

Tomorrow, Sunday, June 11, is the the 1st Sunday after Trinity, the Feast of St Barnabas, one of the prominent disciples in Jerusalem. Named as an early apostle in the Acts of the Apostles, he undertook missionary journeys alongside St Paul. Barnabas was born and died in Roman Cyprus.

The Eucharist, with hymns, is at St Mary's at 9.15am, when the celebrant and preacher is the Rev Jason Powell. Choral Matins is at St Chad's at 11.15am, when the anthem is These are they that follow the Lamb (Goss). Hannah Currin leads the service and the preacher is the Rev Jason Powell.

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 Tuesday next, June 13, the Archdeacon's Visitation is at St Mary in the Baum at 7pm. For Churchwardens and sidespeople.

On Wednesday next, June 14, at St Mary's at 12.30pm, the Toad Lane Lunchtime Concert features Louise Taylor, soprano, and Jonathan Ellis, piano. Admission is £6.

On Thursday next, June 15, Holy Communion is at St Chad's at 10am.

Sunday next, June 18, is the 2nd Sunday after Trinity. The Eucharist, with hymns, is at St Mary's at 9.15am, when the celebrant and preacher is Fr Darren Quinlan.

Choral Eucharist, attended by the Mayor, is at St Chad's at 11.15 am, when the anthem is The Call (Lloyd). The celebrant and preacher is the Vicar, the Rev Anne Gilbert.

The next Saturday Lunchtime Concert at St Chad's is at noon on June 24, featuring Duncan Glenday, piano. Admission is £6 and includes light refreshments.

St Mary's, Balderstone

This morning is our monthly coffee morning from 10am to noon in the parish room. If you’re free we’d love to welcome you for a brew or soft drinks, and perhaps a little treat (cakes, biscuits and toasted teacakes available on request).

Our usual cake and craft stalls will be available. Everyone welcome.

Tomorrow, our Holy Communion service starts at 10.30am. From tomorrow we will be retuning to distribution of the Lord’s Supper as per pre-covid.

This will mean that Rev Wilkinson will no longer be wearing a face mask during the distribution, and there will be a shared cup for the wine. If you are feeling vulnerable, anxious or struggle with the idea of a shared cup, please be assured that you are welcome to receive the bread only and that in doing so you are still participating fully in the Lord’s Supper.

We’ll be continuing our sermon series in the book of Jude, looking at verses five to sixteen. Sunday School will be available. There are groups for children aged four-11.

Our Sunday evening prayer gathering, meets at Saint Saviours’ this week between 6.30pm-7.30pm. St Saviours church is on Bishopsgate St, off Denton Lane, Chadderton, OL9 9BF. If you can’t come in person, you have the option of joining in via Zoom.

SMurFs (St Mary's Under Fives) meets on Tuesday afternoon 1.30pm-3pm in the parish room. There is a small charge of £1 for one adult with one child and an extra 30p each for extra children.

This week’s bible studies will be Zoom only. The dates and times are unchanged- Wednesday and Thursday, both at 7.20pm-9pm.

St Mary’s now has a new website. Check us out at www.stmarysbalderstone.org.uk or for further information about any of our services or events, please get in touch by email stmarysbalderstone@gmail.com or see Facebook, www.facebook.com/saintmarysbalderstone

St Andrew's, Dearnley

This week's column from St Andrew's is mainly about bugs - the creepy, crawly variety that we love to see in our gardens because they are so good for the soil, the plants and the environment generally. Our church grounds, church gardens and graveyards, often close to the church building or even "wrapped" round it, as is the case at our place, are in need at this time of year of just as much loving care and attention as we devote to our own gardens at home.

That's just one of the reasons why we are having the splendidly-entitled Bug Count in the Church grounds today (Saturday). We already have what is known as the Bug Hotel, which we have constructed to the left of the path that leads from church up to the area which is designated as the graveyard overspill.

The 'hotel' is protected from the weather by the nearby wall and is thus a warm and safe haven for creepy-crawlies and the like. The Bug Count will appeal especially to younger people and we wish to make it clear that ALL are welcome no matter what your age, gender, or indeed whether you consider yourself to be a Church member or not.

You don't have to be a St Andrew's person, for want of a better word. If you are into anything 'green' like this just turn up for 10am today (Saturday) and you will find us gathered there and ready to spend a couple of hours or so in the church grounds, looking for bugs, tidying up and generally enjoying our very own God's acre.

The Bug Count will run from 10am to noon, or thereabouts, and at the end, weather permitting, we intend to have a picnic, so please bring your picnic with you. It will all make for an enjoyable hour or two.

At risk of repeating ourselves the message is that this is open for everyone, as are all the events at St Andrew's, be they church services, meetings, or social events. It isn't every day you have the opportunity to look for bugs as part of a group so please come along to the Bug Count, activities at which will include a nature quiz, a count of insects, birds and plants etc and simple gardening activities, such as adding to our bug hotel, weeding and tidying.

It's all part of the "Caring for God's Acres" initiative, to which we are now proud to be affiliated. Our many activities in this direction, coupled with the recent visit to our Mothers Union by a local bee keeper and our progress in the Eco Church programme, proves beyond doubt that we are interested in everything green and more than happy to show that actions speak louder than words.

Don't forget our Colours Fashion Show at 2pm on Saturday, July 15 (tickets £6, refreshments provided) and the visit to our MU meeting on Monday, September 4 by Ian Wolstenholme and his Oldham Community Radio team to tell us all about community radio and what the award-winning Oldham station has to offer. It really is a good listen, as Ian will no doubt tell us.

Tomorrow, we’ll have our usual Sung Eucharist at 9.30am. We also have a midweek Eucharist, said, at 10.30am each Thursday.

Please remember that everyone is welcome at St Andrew’s... and we really do mean EVERYONE!

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.