Author: stjohnstmarkchurchbury

4Louis is a UK charity that works across the country to support anyone affected by miscarriage, stillbirth and the death of a baby or child. They also work to improve the care bereaved families receive from health care and other professionals.
To raise funds we will be holding a Christmas Fair at St John with St Mark’s Hall from 2.30pm – 4.30pm on Sunday 2nd December.

The church is ‘dressed’ ready for our Harvest Festival on Sunday 14th October at 10.30am.  You’re very welcome to join us as we plough the fields and scatter! Rainbows, Brownies, Beavers and Cubs will all be with us.

All donations of food will go to the Porch Boxes and the Booth Centre.

Afterwards there will be a Harvest lunch in the hall.

On preparing for holidays, bags are packed and we’re ready to be off.  It’s an illustration I often use at a Baptism service. Once your bags are packed and loaded into the car you don’t then just sit on the drive for a week and come back raving about what a lovely time you’ve had of it.  That would be pointless.  You’ve made preparations: you make the journey. 

This is our October magazine which includes a farewell from Gill Barnett, who is moving to a new role in Rochdale…

These ‘prayers for a priest’ are for the Reverend Gill Barnett whose final service with us was today, Sunday 30th September. She takes up a new post from 21st October as Priest-in-Charge of Healey & Hamer and St. Ann, Belfield.

Here are the Bible readings for October. So if you can’t get to Church and want to follow the same scripture passages then here you go. Or if you just want to read up in advance for the Sunday to come, then please make use of below.

A picture of wisdom was drawn by comedian, Milton Jones, comparing it to cutlery. He said wisdom is not like that special set of knives and forks you keep for certain occasions, locked away in a velvet-lined box – all pristine and shiny. Rather wisdom is like a Swiss Army knife, worn and pitted, used and useful, honed and sharpened.

For many, today is Harvest Festival. It’s celebrated on the day of the full moon in the Autumnal Equinox, which this year is the 24th Sept. So, if the sky is clear then tonight you’ll see the Harvest Moon.

“By entering this church it may be possible that you hear “the call of God”. 

However, it is less probable that He will call you on your mobile. 

Thank you for turning off your phones.     

If you want to talk to God, enter, choose a quiet place and talk to him.  

If you want to see him, send him a text while driving.”

A few months ago, the CofE launched its Alexa ‘skill’, enabling users to ask the Church of England for prayers, explanations of faith and information about local church events and services.

“We’re thrilled to be launching the Alexa skill, to enable regular churchgoers and those exploring faith to connect with God in another way and at a time that’s right for them,” the Archbishop of York said.

How do you do it?

It’s easy! Once enabled you can launch the Church of England skill by saying: “Alexa, open the Church of England”

During our Bury to Heaton Park walk we took in the River Roch, Unsworth Pole and Egypt Farm before getting to Heaton Park.

Whilst there we visited the monument to John Paul II who with the help of his ‘popemobile’ had taken mass there in 1982.

Join us in a celebration of our journey of faith on 30th September from 10.30 am at a joint service at Christ Church.

We’ll also be saying goodbye to Gill Barnett as she packs her bags and takes up her new post in Rochdale.

For Paul, an ideal community shows love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. He called these qualities the ‘fruit of the Spirit’. But did Paul mean that as an exclusive list – or are there ‘vegetables’ too?

Malcolm is starting a new Latino and Latin dance class on a Thursday.

Give him a call on 01706 872129 to mark your card.

As the name of the group suggests the evening is open to all. We meet on the second Wednesday of each month. It starts at 7.30pm and normally lasts just over an hour with a brew and a chat at the end.

One of the sessions is a Craft Night, hence the photo above. But most evenings are listening to speakers, either visitors or people from our own congregation.

If you’ve not been before, go on, give it a try!