About Us
We are now part of the Rossendale Team of nine parishes forming a Mission Community within the Bury and Rossendale Deanery
St Mary's remains Biblically orthodox in its Christian faith (as defined in the '39 Articles of Faith and the historic formularies of the Church of England). Jesus is Lord of every area of our shared and private lives.
We're all on a journey of repentance and transformation, it would be great to share with you on the same journey

Our Vision
Our vision is:
"To reveal Jesus as we love God and serve others in the power of His Spirit."

Our Purpose
To enjoy fellowship as we worship in Spirit and Truth, grow in discipleship, develop in ministry and deploy in mission
Prayer Request Form
Please submit your prayer requests by completing the box below and clicking Send Prayer Request
Notices
WHAT'S ON
Morning Services
Sunday 11:00AM
Sunday school for children during part of the service
Family Service
1st Sunday of month
Suitable for the whole family to join in or with Sunday school for children
Holy Communion
2nd and 4th Sunday of month
Sunday school for children during part of the service
Morning Prayer
3rd Sunday of month
Mothers' Union
3rd Monday of month 7:30pm
Group for anyone, ladies or men who are interested in the cultivation of family life
Soup and a Sandwich
2nd Wednesday of month 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Free soup and a sandwich lunch, open to everyone
House Groups/Bible Study
We currently have two groups, please contact church for more details
VE Day Service
Renew
On-line Service
Church Services
All service Readings and Prayers will be posted here and on our Facebook page.
Prayers
18th May 2025 by Nigel
Let us pray, Father of all, we come to you in prayer, we give thanks for the new commandment, help us Lord to embrace and live this out in our lives going forward.
A new commandment I give unto you,
That you love one another as I have loved you,
That you love one another as I have loved you,
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples,
If you have love one for another.
By this shall all men know that you are my disciples,
If you have love one for another.
God, the creator and preserver of all mankind, we pray for people of every race, and in every kind of need: make your ways known on earth, your saving power among all nations. We especially pray for peace and justice on earth as it is in heaven, to all places of unrest. We pray for the poor, sick, the needy, and we pray for all the organisations working to provide for their needs. Encourage us Lord to use our time, talents and money to help the poor, sick and the needy, Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.
Lord, we pray for our families, friends, neighbours. Lord, we pray for our health and well-being, praying and giving thanks for our marriages, our relationships, our safety and security, for your guidance in our lives. We continue to pray for our schools and children, Lord, we pray you will nurture and guide all to your everlasting kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord. Lord in your mercy hear our prayer.
We commend to your fatherly goodness all that are anxious or distressed in mind or body; comfort and relieve them in their need; give them patience in their sufferings, and bring good out of their troubles. We pray for members of our congregation that are suffering at the present time.
And others known to us personally. We ask that they feel your presence and support.
Lord in your mercy Hear our prayer
O God our maker and redeemer We pray for those who mourn we remember all who have recently died and those whose anniversary of death occurs at this time
Bring comfort, dear Lord, to all those who mourn. Lord in your mercy
Father as we gather up all of our prayers this Eastertide, our prayers spoken today, the unspoken prayers of our hearts, our prayers of yesterday and our prayers over the weeks and months to come our prayers for whom we love, and for those whom we pray this day and forevermore. Rejoicing in the fellowship of all your saints, we commend ourselves and all creation to your unfailing love.
Merciful Father Accept these prayers for the sake of your son Our saviour Jesus Christ
Amen
Today Talk from Rev'd Laura
18th May 2025
Acts 11.1-18 & John 13:31-35
Our readings today are all about love. An awful lot of things get said about love don’t they?
Culturally love is often linked to big red hearts and flowers.
We’re told…Love makes the World Go Round! All You Need is Love! Love is Blind, Love is Friendship on Fire...I could go on. There are hundreds of songs and poems that try to capture precisely what love is and the important role it has to play in our lives.
It seems to be very difficult to express everything that love is - as if words can’t quiet capture it well enough. This might leave us to wonder what love actually looks like?
Our passages today, paint a beautiful picture of what the love of God looks like and I think it’s one we could all do with taking a closer look at.
Have we got any fans of the Frozen films here today? Those films tell us Love is an Open Door! I think the people who wrote the Frozen soundtrack almost have it right - love does look a bit like an open door. It seems that, with Jesus, love…is as an open table!
Let’s take a look at what’s going on in Acts.
Jesus’ followers have recently begun to tell people about the events of Easter. They’ve been trying to tell everyone how much God loves them.
Many of them had witnessed how Jesus gave up His life on the cross to save the world. I think a good way of remembering God’s love for us is to imagine the cross tipped on its side, so it looks like an X for a kiss. A mark of God’s unstoppable, self-giving love, placed on a broken world and sealing His promise of new life for us, forever.
After seeing what God had done, Jesus’ friends met with the risen Lord and told Him that they loved Him. They said that they wanted to follow Him, so Jesus left them with some instructions about how to walk in His ways. He told them to go and share the Good News, ‘in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.’
I think Jesus’ first followers were probably excited about sharing their story with people. At this point, they still have a very limited idea of God’s love. They probably thought that love seemed fairly easy and that their hearts were big enough to handle it!
They haven’t really thought about how big the table is going to need to be if it’s going to fit people from all the corners of the world!
Problems start to arise pretty quickly.
Jesus’ disciple, Peter, is seen eating a meal at the house of a Centurion called Cornelius (a non-Jew) – and the other followers are shocked!
Jesus’ first disciples were Jewish. They had been raised to obey the Jewish food laws and even though they had decided to follow Jesus, they still wanted to keep the traditions that had shaped their spiritual lives up until this point.
I imagine they were excited to talk to outsiders, to non-Jews, and tell them all about Jesus, but sharing a meal would have been very uncomfortable – definitely a step too far!
How could a good Jewish boy, like Peter, possibly eat with foreigners?!
When the church leaders ask Peter to explain himself, he has a brilliant answer.
Peter describes how it was hard for him to accept at first, but Jesus had shown him what God’s love really looks like in action.
He describes how the Holy Spirit told him to let go of old boundaries and to open up the table.
Barriers of separation based on culture, race, food or language are obsolete now because of Jesus – in fact, they’re getting in the way of new thing God is doing and need to be broken down.
Peter shows the first disciples, and us, what genuine love looks like. Real love, God’s love, draws us out of ourselves and encourages us to reach out to others in ways that move us beyond our comfort zones.
I love the picture of the open table that Peter describes. I imagine it reminded the disciples of the way Jesus shared meals with them. How he welcomed them - even washed their feet! And commanded them to ‘love one another’ as He had loved them.
Jesus’ command to ‘love one another’ still applies to us today.
Maybe we’re a bit over-confident sometimes, like those first disciples? Maybe we’re certain our hearts are big enough? I wonder if this confidence is there because we only associate with like-minded people? And avoid those who are different from us? This is easy love and it is not big enough for God.
Jesus challenges all of us to make a lot more room in our hearts and to lay more and more places at the table! Budging up and making room means turning from ourselves and towards others. It means giving up things that we want, in order to clear space.
It means asking God to examine our hearts and show us the out-dated barriers that we hold onto. What assumptions do we keep making about other people? What ugly prejudice lives deep inside us? Who is the one person that we could NEVER imagine inviting to dinner?
If you invite that person, I’m not going to promise you a pleasant evening. This kind of Godly loving is hard - it can be frustrating, it can be messy – but it is exactly the kind of love that Jesus showed when He gave up His life to save those who hated Him.
If anyone wants to check-out this kind of messy love in action, can I recommend watching The Decider episode of the kids show, Bluey – it’s only about 7mins long. I’ve taken inspiration from my daughter today, because I’ve realised children are often much better at making room for others than adults. In the story, poor Chucky, is torn between supporting his dad's team and his mum's team in a sports game. There are lots of different expectations and feelings and opinions flying around and trying to reach an understanding is hard work! But the family do the work – they each make sacrifices to find common ground and, in the end, they support one team, together.
If our love is truly to reflect the love of God, it will not be restricted. It will lead us to embrace people who are wildly different from us – maybe even hostile towards us.
Jesus invites each of us to lead lives defined by radical love. The idea of an open table is offensive in a world that loves borders and barriers. Our media seems to take great pleasure in labelling and dividing people. And often, we are taught to love with a whole host of conditions aren’t we? We tend to look at the world through the lens of capitalism – we’re only supposed to give, so that we can receive something back.
Love with limits or strings or barriers is not how Jesus loves us. On the cross He gave Himself freely and we are called to do the same. The way that the Holy Spirit united people of different ages, races and backgrounds was shocking to the first disciples – but the work of God’s Spirit continues today and Jesus calls to us to join in.
I mentioned at the start that love is hard to define. But I think God’s love can be seen most clearly in a picture of people who have nothing in common, sharing a meal together – just as Jesus welcomes us to come to His table at communion. God’s love can be seen when we, like Peter, open up to the Spirit’s challenge to let go of our fears and ask God to make more space in hearts. If we do that, if we really budge up…I have no doubt that we’ll start to glimpse the height, depth and breadth of God’s love for us and for every single thing He has made.
Amen.
Communion Reflection
This is a short Communion Reflection that you can join at any time. There is a quiet period within it that you can pause if you want a longer period of reflection
Safe Guarding Policy
At St Mary’s, Rawtenstall we work hard to maintain a safe environment for all. We are committed to implementing the House of Bishops’ safeguarding policies and good practice guidance.
If you have any concerns or enquiries regarding safeguarding, please contact our safeguarding officer.
- Parish Safeguarding Officer: Vicky Rhodes
- Phone: 01254 389589
A hard copy of the ‘Manchester Diocese Safeguarding Handbook’ and the ‘Church of England – Parish Safeguarding Handbook’ are available for inspection in the vestry at St Mary’s.
The Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser is Abbey Clephane-Wilson, she can be contacted at
- Email: safeguarding@manchester.anglican.org
- Phone: 0161 828 1465
- Mobile: 07384 460958
Out of Hours Support
The Diocese of Manchester partners with thirtyone:eight and you can access their Safeguarding Helpline if the Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser is unavailable. Thirtyone:eight can be contacted on 0303 003 1111.
This also includes any safeguarding queries outside of office hours on weekdays and weekends. An Information Sharing Agreement between the two organisations will allow the Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser to receive a copy of the advice thirtyone:eight may offer the caller.
In the case of an emergency
If you have immediate concerns about the safety of someone, please contact the police and your local authority Children or Adults Service. Lancashire County Council on 0300 123 6720 or outside of working hours 0300 123 6722
Helplines
NSPCC Child Protection Helpline: 0808 800 5000 (lines free and open 24 hours).
- Child-line: 0800 1111 (lines free and open 24 hours).
- Parent Line: 0808 800 2222
- National Domestic Violence Helpline: 0808 2000 247 (lines free and open 24 hours).
- Samaritans Helpline: 116 123 (open 24 hours).
- Action on Elder Abuse Helpline: 080 8808 8141 (freephone Monday to Friday 9-5pm)
Facts
Some interesting facts about St Mary's Rawtenstall
Year Opened
Average Congregation
Downstairs Capacity
Electoral Roll (2020)
Activities
- All
- Adults
- Scouts
- Guides

Mothers Union
3rd Monday, 7:30pm

Rainbows
Monday, 5:30pm

Ladies Fellowship
Alt. Wednesday, 2:00pm

Beavers
Wednesday, 6:15pm

Brownies
Monday, 6:30pm

Mens Breakfast
1st Saturday, 8:15am

Cubs
Tuesday, 7:00pm

Scouts
Thursday, 7:30pm

Guides
Monday, 7:30pm
Team
Meet the team of people at St Mary's who keep the building functioning, but the real church is not the building but the people who use the building.

Revd Samuel Hameem
Team Vicar in the Rossendale TeamRevd Samuel Hameem

Julie Barratt
Associate MinisterJulie Barratt

Pete Terry
Church WardenPete Terry

Jean Lang
Church WardenJean Lang

Nick and Suzanne
Childrens WorkSuzanne & Nick
Contact Us
Please contact us if you need any further information, or clarification of services/times. We will try and get back to you as soon as possible.