Bury Parish Church

06/09/2026

This morning we welcome the Mayor and Mayoress of the Metropolitan Borough of Bury to the Mayors Service. https://youtube.com/?feature=shared

05/09/2026

Our parish choir has provided music for worship at Bury Parish Church for many centuries, predating the current church building. While membership has evolved over time, our adult singers contribute significant experience and vocal quality, supporting our teenage and junior members. This collaboration ensures the continuation of our rich choral heritage across generations.
We invite experienced adult singers who appreciate choral music and wish to join our ongoing tradition to express their interest. School-aged children rehearse on Fridays during term time from 4:00 pm to 7:30 pm, with a supper break included.
Our choir performs a diverse repertoire spanning several centuries, including evening canticles, traditional communion settings, anthems, and motets. The selection changes weekly to reflect the liturgical calendar.
For further information or to arrange attendance at a rehearsal, please contact [email protected]

05/09/2026

The Place to Start

There are many places we can go to learn about something new, or to grow in wisdom and knowledge. Books are full of access to insightful information. The internet is overloaded with both helpful and unhelpful content about any subject imaginable.

While those are great places to start, Scripture tells us that the foundation of all knowledge is a healthy fear of the Lord. This means that while we can learn things from anyone, the beginning of true wisdom always begins with God.

The fear of the Lord doesn’t necessarily mean that you should be afraid of God. It means that we should live our lives in awe of Him. We do this by recognizing who He is—the Creator and Sustainer of all things. He is all-powerful and all-knowledgeable. God’s Word says He holds the power of life and death in His hands. These attributes should cause us to live in awe of God.

Scripture also tells us that God is loving, gracious, and merciful. Even though we—His own creation—previously rebelled against Him, God graciously gave us access back to Himself through His Son, Jesus. The God who created the universe loves each and every one of us. He loves you.

Living in awe of who God is and what He has done is the beginning of all wisdom and knowledge. We would be foolish to turn away from such a powerful and gracious God.

While we can learn a lot about many different things through books, people, and the internet, the most essential and important piece of knowledge about God comes from His Word.

Today, spend some time with God in His Word and in prayer—thanking Him for who He is and what He has done for you. Begin a habit of reading Scripture regularly so that you can know, respect, and trust Him in a deeper way.

04/09/2026

Guard What Has Been Entrusted

📖 2 Timothy 1:13–14 (NRSVue)

“Guard the good deposit entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.”

Some things in life are simply possessions.

Other things are entrusted to us.

Paul reminds Timothy that faith, sound teaching, calling, and responsibility are not things to handle casually. They are gifts that must be received carefully and guarded faithfully.

That does not mean hiding our faith away.

It means refusing to let it become neglected, diluted, or shaped entirely by whatever is easiest or most popular around us.

Sometimes faith is not lost through one dramatic decision.

It is weakened slowly.

Prayer becomes less important.

Scripture gets pushed aside.

Service becomes inconvenient.

Truth gets softened.

Calling gets postponed.

So perhaps today is a good day to ask:

What has God entrusted to me that needs more care?

Maybe it is your faith.

Your family.

A ministry.

A gift.

A responsibility.

Or an opportunity to encourage and serve someone.

And there is good news in this verse too.

Paul does not tell Timothy to guard these things through determination alone.

He says to do it with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

Faithfulness is not something we manufacture by ourselves.

God gives us his Spirit to strengthen, correct, guide and sustain us.

🙏 Prayer

Faithful God, help me recognise the good things you have entrusted to me. Keep me from treating them casually or allowing distraction and fear to weaken my faithfulness. Holy Spirit, strengthen me to guard what is good, live what I believe, and use what you have given me in ways that honour Christ and serve others.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

03/09/2026

The God Who Teaches and Leads

📖 Isaiah 48:17 (NRSVue)

“Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you how to succeed, who leads you in the way you should go.”

We often ask God for directions.

Which decision should I make?

Which path should I take?

What happens next?

But perhaps God's purpose is deeper than simply giving us the correct answer.

God doesn't only want to direct us. He wants to form us.

Isaiah speaks to people who had repeatedly failed to listen to God. Yet God still calls himself their Redeemer. He continues teaching them and continues showing them the way.

That tells us something beautiful about God's patience.

And the words “teaches you how to succeed” aren't simply a promise that God will help us achieve whatever we want.

Biblical success begins with learning God's ways and faithfully walking in them.

Sometimes that means God teaches us patience while we wait.

Trust when the future is uncertain.

Forgiveness when we have been hurt.

Generosity when we would rather hold tightly to what we have.

And courage when obedience is uncomfortable.

We often pray:

“Lord, show me where I'm going.”

Perhaps today we could also pray:

“Lord, what are you teaching me as you lead me?”

We may not see the entire road ahead.

But we know the One who does.

🙏 Prayer

Gracious God, be my Teacher and my Guide. Give me a heart willing to listen and the wisdom to recognise your way. When I cannot see what lies ahead, give me enough faith to take the next faithful step. Shape me through your Word and help me follow where you lead.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

02/09/2026

🌿 The earth is full of God’s steadfast love.

📖 “The earth, O LORD, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes.”

— Psalm 119:64 (NRSVue)

There are two beautiful movements in this verse:

Recognise God’s love.
Then ask God to teach you.

The psalmist isn't pretending that everything around him is perfect. Psalm 119 speaks honestly about suffering, opposition and uncertainty.

Yet difficulty hasn't convinced him that God has stopped being good.

He still looks at the world and declares that it is full of God's steadfast love.

But then he goes further:

“Teach me.”

Sometimes our first prayer is:

“Lord, change this situation.”

Perhaps we also need to pray:

“Lord, while I am here, teach me.”

Teach me patience when I want everything resolved immediately.

Teach me forgiveness when resentment feels easier.

Teach me generosity when I want to hold back.

Teach me trust when I cannot see what happens next.

And teach me courage when I already know what is right but hesitate to do it.

Today, look for one ordinary sign of God's goodness that you might normally overlook.

Then ask yourself:

Because God has loved me faithfully, how should I live differently today?

🙏 Prayer

Gracious God, open my eyes to your steadfast love around me. Teach me through your Word and shape my heart through what you show me. Give me wisdom to understand, courage to obey, and grace to let the love I receive from you become visible in the way I treat others today.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

29/08/2026

God Guides Our Life

Have you ever faced something unexpected? Maybe it was a surprise that brought you joy, or a tragedy that greatly affected your life. All of us experience moments in life that we don’t anticipate.

Even though unexpected things will happen, we still plan and dream for how our lives will go. We may have plans for our future education, or plans for specific relationships in our lives. But we can't fully plan for the unexpected—since we cannot know the future. We don’t even know what might happen in the next few minutes.

We learn in Scripture that God is all-knowing, which means He knows everything that will happen everywhere in the world. He has complete knowledge of every event and action that happens. More than that, He is also sovereign, which means He has ultimate control over everything that happens in the world.

That means that even though we make our plans, God is ultimately the one who directs our steps. He has the power to change the direction of our lives, as well to as guide us into what’s best for us.

Take some time to think about the dreams and plans that you have for your life. Have you ever submitted those plans to God in prayer? This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t make plans for your life, but rather, whatever you plan should not come before God’s plans for your life.

Take a moment to ask God to direct your steps. Ask Him to reveal any desires or plans that are not from Him. Submit your plans to God so that you’ll be open to follow Him wherever He leads you. Thank Him for His goodness and grace in guiding your life.

29/08/2026

Ground Works Update
24.08.2026

As work continues to record the historic ledger stones at Bury Parish Church, our volunteers are uncovering some fascinating – and often moving – stories about the people commemorated there.

One of the stones records Thomas Leigh Crompton (1806–1852), his first wife Ellen, and six of their children. After coming across the stone, one of our volunteers decided to find out more about the family and discovered that Thomas had a particularly close connection to the church.

Thomas was born in Bury and became sexton of the church, following in the footsteps of his father, William Crompton, who had also held the role.

In 1829, Thomas married Ellen Hamer at the church and together they had eleven children. Sadly, five of their children died in infancy. Ellen herself died in 1849, aged just 39, leaving Thomas with six children to care for.

Thomas married his second wife, Jane Hoyle, at the church on New Year’s Eve 1850. Their daughter Sarah was born in April 1852, but just a month later Thomas died, aged 46. Sadly, Sarah also died that September, when she was only five months old.

Further research by our volunteer has helped us follow some of Thomas’s surviving children into adulthood and learn a little more about what happened to the family after his death. Jane never remarried and remained connected to Thomas’s family until her death in Bury in 1888.

Stories like Thomas’s show just how much history can be held within a single stone. By carefully recording the inscriptions and researching the people behind them, our volunteers are helping to uncover the lives of people who were once part of the church and the wider Bury community – bringing their stories back into view.

29/08/2026

Sunday, 30 August 2026
Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity
No 8.00am Holy Communion today
10.00am Sung Parish Eucharist, Cantonese Church and Sunday School, followed by refreshments in the Blackburne Hall.
12.00pm Baptism of Rocky, Rome and Ronnie
6.30pm Evensong

Collect for the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity
Almighty God,
who called your Church to bear witness
that you were in Christ reconciling the world to yourself:
help us to proclaim the good news of your love,
that all who hear it may be drawn to you;
through him who was lifted up on the cross,
and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen

Videos, Live Streams and Podcasts from St. Mary the Virgin, Bury or Bury Parish Church as it is more commonly known.

28/08/2026

The Power of Words

Words have power.

We use thousands of them every day to communicate. They help us share joy and sadness. They help us learn and grow. We use them to build each other up—or to tear each other down. And yet, we often underestimate the impact of our words.

Are you giving thought to the words you speak over yourself or about others daily? Are they words rooted in doubt, fear, and insecurity, or do they come from the truth, goodness, and security in God’s promises?

In Psalm 46:1, the Psalmist makes a powerful declaration of God's truth and promise: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.”

And this declaration leads to action in the next verse: “Therefore we will not fear” (verse 2).

Our declarations have the power to guide our actions. So what is it that you are declaring? Maybe today, you need the reminder to speak the truth of the words that come from God—your refuge, strength, and ever-present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1).

As God's child, you have been given freedom in Christ to choose and use words wisely (Colossians 4:6, Ephesians 4:29).

So today, as you remember that God is your refuse and strength, choose words of life. May your tongue be an instrument of blessing, as you declare what is true, pure, admirable, and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).