About Us

We are now part of the Rossendale Team of nine parishes forming a Mission Community within the Bury and Rossendale Deanery
Rossendale Team Ministry

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

Our Values

Faithful to the Message - Focussed on Ministry - Flourishing in Mission

Prayer Request Form

Please submit your prayer requests by completing the box below and clicking Send Prayer Request


Notices

Harvest Events at St Marys

Harvest Make and Take

Saturday 5th October
2:00pm - 4:00pm

Crafts for pre-school and junior age children
Refreshments provided


Harvest Supper

Saturday 5th October
5:30pm - 7:00pm

Potato pie and peas or Veggie Chilli
Guest Speaker: Kathryn from Mercy Ships
Pre booking required please - 01706217530 / 0747031453 (by 29th September)


Harvest Family Service

Sunday 6th October
11:00am

All are welcome
Collection of dried/tinned goods for RAFT


Mayor of Rossendale Civic Sunday Harvest Service

Sunday 6th October
3:00pm

Donations of non-perishable items will be greatly received and distributed to local food banks


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


Tiddlers

Mondays 1pm to 2:30pm

For babies and pre-school-age children (during term-time). 

Restarts Monday January 22nd 2024, then every Monday


Mothers' Union

3rd Monday of month 7:30pm

Group for anyone, ladies or men who are interested in the cultivation of family life

Mothers Union


 

Soup and a Sandwich

2nd Wednesday of month 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Free soup and a sandwich lunch, open to everyone

Drop-In with Soup and a Sandwich 2nd Wednesday Monthly


House Groups/Bible Study

We currently have two groups, please contact church for more details


 



On-line Service

Church Services

All service Readings and Prayers will be posted here and on our Facebook page. We are keeping this under regular review. Please take care and stay safe.

Prayers

20th October 2024 by Pete

A litany adapted from the Church of England:

Hear our prayers, O Lord our God.

All   Hear us, good Lord.

Govern and direct your holy Church; fill it with love and truth;

and grant it that unity which is your will.

All   Hear us, good Lord.

Give us boldness to preach the gospel in all the world, and to make disciples of all the nations.

All   Hear us, good Lord.

Enlighten those in the Rossendale Team, who minister to us,

with knowledge and understanding, that by their teaching and their lives they may proclaim your word.

All   Hear us, good Lord.

Give your people grace to hear and receive your word, and to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit.

All   Hear us, good Lord.

Bring into the way of truth all who have erred and are deceived.

All   Hear us, good Lord.

Strengthen those who stand; comfort and help the faint-hearted;

raise up the fallen; and finally beat down Satan under our feet.

All   Hear us, good Lord.

Guide the leaders of the nations into the ways of peace and justice.

All   Hear us, good Lord.

Guard and strengthen your servant Charles our King,

that he may put his trust in you and seek your honour and glory.

All   Hear us, good Lord.

Endue Parliament and all the Ministers of the Crown with wisdom and understanding.

All   Hear us, good Lord.

Bless those who administer the law, that they may uphold justice, honesty and truth.

All   Hear us, good Lord.

Bring your joy into all families; bring reconciliation to those in discord and peace to those in stress.

All   Hear us, good Lord.

As we think back to our harvest service two weeks ago, and the school harvest in church this week, we remember our responsibility to care for the earth set out in Genesis 2 verse 15:

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

Heavenly Father, we thank You for entrusting us with the care of Your wonderful creation. Help us to be responsible stewards of the environment, recognising that we are called to protect and preserve the Earth for future generations. Grant us the wisdom to make responsible choices and the strength to act as stewards of Your creation. May our efforts to protect the environment be a testament to our love for You and Your glorious Earth. Amen

Again, thinking about those services Lord, we bring before You the young people of our church. Fill them with a growing faith and the abilities to navigate life’s challenges. Help us to welcome them and encourage them to take an active participation within our church. May they find in You a solid foundation, shaping their lives around Your teachings. Especially we pray for those going forward for confirmation next month. Grant them strength, wisdom and the discernment to always choose the path of truth and righteousness. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen

Dear Father, we bring before you the people seriously affected by the conflict in the Middle East. We see so much devastation and suffering on our television and in our newspapers. We ask that you stretch out your mighty hand to bring an end to this war. We pray for people who have been injured or traumatised, who have lost loved ones or their homes. Please provide everything they need and be their comfort, their hope, their healer, and their safe refuge. 

We pray for your peace to reign. We look to you as our Saviour and the hope of the world. Amen.

Finally, Lord, We pray for all those known to us who are ill, and those who care for them, and for those who mourn at this time, that they be held in your loving arms. Bless the work of the doctors, surgeons and hospital staff. Bring healing and wellness into their being. May your grace carry them through this hard time into a new season filled with hope and joy. Amen

 

 

Worship Songs/Service

Today Talk from Steve

20th October 2024

Zacchaeus Responding in Faith

Let’s Pray

Thank you, Lord, for giving us your word. Thank you, Lord, for opening our hearts. And we do pray for that. That very thing, Lord. The opening of our hearts to hear you. To hear your voice. Your wisdom. Your truth. And then, Father, God, as always, we pray for the strength and courage to apply your word to our lives. Thank you, father, for being with us. Being in this place. We ask you to Minister to each and every heart in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I have some Christian friends who have been through very difficult life circumstances facing personal issue, family issues, friends who have battled or continue to face life challenges.

They have had and continue to have parental challenges, difficult relationships, abuse, illness, addictions.

They would say disasters always seem to follow them and they would feel hopeless.

It is very popular now to talk about the struggles of mental health, it no longer carry’s the stigma it once had.

We all at some point we all struggle with issues life throws at us and I am no exception.

Back in the 1970’s my parents split up when I was 12, both mum and dad eventually re married, we as kids had two blended families to try to fit in and please.

Over the next 6-7 years I suffered emotionally, physically, financially and educationally.

At the time of the separation, my brother was 10, and he went off the rails, mainly because we were left with dad who was absent a lot of the time working shift and going to the pub in the evenings as he tried to compensate for the loss of my mum who he had not looked after very well.

I think in modern times we would now call his behaviour controlling and coercive, unfortunately for my dad, my mum was a fierce creature and eventually would no longer tolerate his behaviour.

Not long after their separation my brother asked to be placed into care because he could not cope being part of what was left of a broken family. He entered the care system, at the age of 10 and because of his worsening behaviour he was transferred several times to ever more secure units and there he remained till he was 18.

Many years later we lost Paul through a hereditary illness he was just in his early 40s, been in care from the age of 10 till he was 18 all of the world was against him, at least that was his view.

He was a Christian and had been exposed to the same teachings and church activities as I had in our young adult lives.

Any yet he always carried a chip on his shoulder, several chips in fact.

We would have many a conversation that would end in the same way, he would announce “well its ok for you with your nice job, house and wife, you never have any struggles”.

When in fact we had both, suffered the loss of our family, financial hardship, illness and may other challenges.

So why had our approach to life taken two completely different path and outcomes.

When I look back to the 12-year-old that I was, I always remember how I reacted to suddenly your family falling apart and your home being dismantled before your eye as the parents broke up the home to try to re establish what they owned with their new partners.

My response was to be a 12-year-old going on 16, I grew up overnight, taking responsibility for the home, cleaning, washing, ironing, cooking and even decorating. I took responsibility.

I also was adopted by a new family, the church and by a heavenly dad.

My Youth Group were amazing and caring, youth leaders were role models, weeklong summer camps were life changing.

The difference between my brother and I was our responses our, response to Jesus.

This morning, I want to explore the response of Zacchaeus when Jesus called him down from the tree where he was hiding! I would also like to compare him with a few other biblical characters that we may all be familiar with and how they responded to their circumstances.

This is another one of those stories in the Bible that is only given to us by Luke. Were it not for Luke, we would not have the story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus stands apart in the fact that he was a chief tax collector. Obviously, some kind of a important person, and it's probably helpful to remember how tax collectors made their money, because they did not just go around collecting taxes for Rome.

Essentially, they made their money by overcharging people. Can you imagine somebody who actually had the job of tax collecting and so the government asks for X amount and if they are going to make any money in the deal at all, they have to ask for money above and beyond what the government wants, and that's what they did, and they could basically set their own amount, however much they could extort from you. However much they could manipulate you into giving, that's how much they would ask for.

And you can imagine it is easy to detest people like that because they were not just gathering money for their government.

It wasn't their government at all. It was the Roman government. It was the oppressive Roman government that was now occupying their land, that they were collecting money for. So, you could see very easily why these people were hated.

Here we have the situation with this particular tax collector. We are not told why Zacchaeus necessarily wanted to see Jesus. Obviously, he was curious. He heard that Jesus was coming through and he wanted to get a look at him.

But being a short man he had to improvise because of the crowds. Now at this point. There is a song going through my head from my childhood. I don't know if you have that same song. Going through your head as well, the lyric was Zacchaeus was a very little man, and a very little man was he.

That was what I learned at Sunday School! You cannot sing that that anymore because that's not politically correct. It's really difficult, to fit into that lyric. Zacchaeus was a vertically challenged man, and a vertically challenged man was he.

That just does not work very well. Anyway, in verse 4, it says so. “He ran on a head and climbed up into a Sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way”.

And this is interesting because the Sycamore fig trees in Israel are very leafy sorts of trees. So, it is very possible that Zacchaeus got up into this particular tree not only to see Jesus, but so as not to be seen by the people because it would be fairly easy to hide in a tree like that.

But, as we know, there is no hiding from God, and I think we all know that Jesus had other plans. Verse 5 it says “when Jesus came to the place he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down for I'm to stay at your house today” and it says he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.

So, there it was, an instant response by Zacchaeus. And we are told here that he received him joyfully and those are good words. And probably important words for us to look at. He received him joyfully.

Joyfully, now there is a lovely picture here. If we pause long enough to notice it, what is going on in these verses. They convey to us the balance and the symmetry of two biblical view points.

You are probably aware that there can be two viewpoints in the Christian Church that are potentially opposed to each other.

There's one view or camp that say it is all about how God calls us. And it's all about election and the people that are in that camp emphasise the sovereignty of God, which it is hard to overemphasise the sovereignty of God, but they talk about how you are the elect. In other words, you are chosen by God, and I believe that because the Bible teaches that we are chosen.

But did you notice the beautiful balance that this passage also conveys to us? You see, the action or the choosing in this particular passage because you see that Jesus called Zacchaeus.

So, Jesus is on the move, he is walking through or leaving Jericho with this huge crowd of people. And there is this man in this tree and Jesus walks up to this tree, looks up there and says Zacchaeus come down. I need to stay at your house today.

So, you see the pursuit of God to the individual, and that is election. But you also see Man's free will happening here, in the sense that Zacchaeus responded it says he received Jesus with Joy.

Here you see the other side of the equation It's a fantastic picture and that is the other camp. People love to get in camps. I'm not sure why I think that when we jump into a camp though. We take on all kinds of blind spots because once I join a camp, I stop looking and, I start defending my camp, and then I stopped looking at the other camps or viewpoints as even a possibility, because I'm in this camp and I'm in, we are against. You.

Remember the words of my brother “it’s alright for you”, he was saying but I am a victim, and that was his camp, his outlook on life and how others had treated him, nothing of the actions or decisions he had made for himself.

You know, it becomes a very adversarial sort of a thing. So, you have two camps, you have the one side that says it's all about God's choosing us, God's election, and then you have the other camp that says no, it's all about us receiving him and choosing. It's all about our free will. And so, you have these people going at it.

And what is great, the Bible teaches both. And I wish we would get out of our camps and just get into the Gods word; the Bible teaches both.

You see these two positions the Bible does not struggle at all reconciling the two, it simply just lays them before us. I love that about God's word, and I love it about not being in camps. So, Luke captures these two approached beautifully. You see Jesus pursuing Zacchaeus and you see Zacchaeus receiving Jesus.

Because not everybody receives that sort of an invitation in the last chapter, we can read there was another wealthy man, a young man. Who came to Jesus posed to him a very important question about eternal life. But that man walked away sad, he was not rejoicing. He did not receive with Joy like Zacchaeus did. He walked away with sadness. And we can read in verse 23 of that last chapter, that he walked away sadly, because he was extremely rich.

Well, guess what? Zacchaeus was extremely rich too. So, the one man could not part with his wealth. Look at how Zacchaeus responded in verses 8 it says, Zacchaeus stood and said to the Jesus. Behold, the half of my goods I give to the poor and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will restore it fourfold.

Wow, he says. If I have defrauded anybody, there was probably a really good chance he had. That's how he made his money. But this sort of a response by Zacchaeus, this is completely in keeping with what biblical repentance is, the rich young ruler in the last chapter. He had been challenged also related to his money. But in this case, Zacchaeus volunteered, we do not have any record of Jesus even mentioning Zacchaeus’s money. Zacchaeus just came out and said, all right, Lord, here is what I am going to do.

I'm going to first of all, before I do anything else, I'm going to take half of what I have, and I'm going to give it to the poor, and then if I have defrauded or cheated anyone by any means, I will restore it four times the amount that was taken, which, by the way, was more than the law required at that time.

So, this was a very, generous, gracious thing to do. But don't think about it as generosity. Think about it as repentance. Because it is real repentance, it's genuine. It was an overflow of the heart. Upon meeting Jesus, it was real repentance, real repentance puts action behind it.

Let me remind you of something that the apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, from Corinthians II 7:10, Paul wrote. 10” Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 11 See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done”.

So, Paul is talking about the fact that real, genuine repentance carries certain actions. Certain things that we do, and it is an overflow. It's not me trying to convince you, you know that I've repented. It just flows. It comes out like. Lord, I just love you so much. I'm going to give half of what I have right now to the poor and if I have defrauded anybody, I will give it back four times over. This is just bubbling out of Zacchaeus.

There is no pulling this out of him, because you can't. You can't pull that sort of response out of somebody. But Paul talks in that passage about godly grief, and that is an interesting term. The NIV calls it godly sorrow. But. It's hard for us to think of grief being good in any sort of a way.

We usually think of grief in negative terms, I actually looked up the word grief. Do you know what synonyms it gave? Sorrow, = grief, misery, sadness, anguish, pain, distress, those all sound negative. And yet Paul said there is such a thing as godly grief or godly sorrow. And of course, the godliness is seen in what we do with that sorrow, in what we do with it.

The rich young ruler was grieved and walked away. Sad, Zacchaeus was grieved by his own sin, but he responded in a godly way, and that's what makes the difference.

And there you have it, that's what makes the difference

There are other biblical examples. Judas was a man who responded with worldly sorrow. And what did Paul say about worldly sorrow? It ends in death. Peter denied the Jesus 3 times. But rather than being overcome by worldly grief, he had a godly grief.

That brought repentance and restoration, reconciliation with the Jesus, and it turned into life. And that's what Zacchaeus is doing in this passage, and the result we read in verse 9 is fantastic. This is really good, and Jesus said to him “today salvation has come to this house since he also is a son of Abraham”.

Now I want you to pay close attention to that. First, because that is a very important verse to read because I think some people don't stop to think about what it means.

Notice he said salvation has come to this house this day, for this man is a son of Abraham. What does he mean when he says he is a son of Abraham?

Is he simply saying for this man is a Jew? I mean, that's what, son of Abraham essentially means.

It means a whole lot more than that here in this verse  9, Here we take a step forward into understanding why someone responds to grief with repentance and why some people, like Judas, respond to grief with worldly sorrow that leads to death. Verse 9 is the key.

Let me show you, Paul wrote about what it means to be a son of Abraham. In a couple of his different letters.

First from Romans, he says not all children are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. In other words, you are not considered a child of Abraham simply because you have the DNA of Jewish blood.

Then Galatians 37 that it is those of faith who are sons of Abraham? So, the two statements are first of all, not everybody who is born a Jew is a true son of Abraham. Why? Because to be a son of Abraham, you must display the heart of Abraham, which is the heart of faith. Trusting God, and that is what Jesus said about Zacchaeus.

Salvation has come to this home today, for this man is a son of Abraham. In other words, he express faith first, and that is the key response to turning grief and sorrow.

From a worldly expression to a godly expression, do you remember Judas? Again, we see this worldly expression of sorrow. Judas was sorrowful when he betrayed Jesus.

He was sorry for what he did. Do you know that he tried to return the money? He tried. He took the silver that he had been given. He took it back and he said, I don't want this to the Pharisees and they did not take it back because they said it was blood money. So, they could not take it back into the into the coffers. But he tried to get rid of it.

But beyond that what was his response to his grief, it was hopelessness. And because of his hopelessness, he ended up taking his life. But what we are seeing here in these passages this morning is that when there is faith. I can take the grief that I have over my sin and my circumstances. And when faith comes into my heart and life, it produces hope and repentance and life.

We all have to come to a place of grief over our sin. And when I say to Jesus. I've sinned. I am a Sinner. I'm a rotten Sinner. That's my grief speaking. But when I also say to him. But you are a big saviour. That is hope, that is faith. That is my faith, that regardless of the size of my sin. My faith rises and says but, what you did on the cross for me, that was enough.

It was good enough and I accept it. I embrace it and because of that it produces repentance that gives life. And if you want to know why our faith is such a powerful element of this whole equation of producing hope in the face of grief, it is all there for us in verse 10, the last verse of this passage. It says, “for the son of man came to seek and save the lost”. If you believe that, then your grief will never overwhelm you.

The grief about your sin, will not overwhelm you. If you believe this statement that the son of man came to both seek and to save the lost and that basically means that Jesus is ever on the lookout for people, sinners who understand that they are lost, they understand who they are and they are ready to turn from their grief to life.

He's ever on the lookout for people like that. Even though Jesus is right now physically seated at the right hand of God in heaven, he is working through the Holy Spirit to actively seek those who want to turn away from their old life that only brings grief and want to turn to him and place their faith in him and in his finished work on the cross.

It is what gives us hope. In the face of grief, I still sin. You know, I would love to tell you that I have stopped sinning. I can't say that I wish I could.

But although my sin grieves me to this day, it does not produce hopelessness in me because I know that Jesus is bigger, I know that what he accomplished on the cross was enough. And I know that my sin will never overwhelm. The work of the cross the cross overwhelms the work of my sin. That is what we call good news.

Whether we are dealing with issues on our own lives, or you have the opportunity to speak into the lives of those who you connect with.

Remind yourself about Zacchaeus and the type of response he made.

Will our response be a Joyful one or a Sad one, a worldly regret or godly grief which leads to life.

In times of trouble and hardship, we can either run away from God or towards him, we have a choice in our response.

 

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.

View Policy Church of England Handbook

The Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser is Abbey Clephane-Wilson, she can be contacted at

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

1838

Year Opened

45

Average Congregation

250

Downstairs Capacity

85

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

Our Churches/Friends

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

Revd Samuel Hameem

Team Vicar in the Rossendale Team

Revd Samuel Hameem

Julie Barratt

Julie Barratt

Associate Minister

Julie Barratt

Pete Terry

Pete Terry

Church Warden

Pete Terry

Jean Lang

Jean Lang

Church Warden

Jean Lang

Nick and Suzanne

Nick and Suzanne

Childrens Work

Suzanne & 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.

Address

St Mary's Terrace, Rawtenstall, Rossendale, Lancashire, BB4 8SQ, United Kingdom

Phone Number

07514 773070