Mothers' Union launched again at St Andrew's

St Andrew's, Dearnley and Smithy Bridge

The recently-formed branch of the Mothers' Union (MU) at St Andrew's, the parish church of Dearnley and Smithy Bridge, will be formally launched at a special service in church on Monday evening (August 6), starting at 7.00pm and to be led by our vicar, the Rev Sharon Jones.

Sharon will bestow the responsibilities of branch leadership on Jean Townshend, who will then formally enrol the 14 newcomers to the MU, who will form the new branch's first membership.

Mrs Mary Helliwell of Oldham, the Rochdale Archdeaconry president of the MU, will be in attendance and she may be joined by the Diocesan president of the MU, Mrs Barbara Taylor of Bury.

After the short service, refreshments will be available and one of the ladies to be enrolled, Kirsty, will present a talk about her highly specialised job which will prove extremely interesting indeed.

Among events coming up in aid of our Wider Welcome appeal are a return visit by the Wigan-based band 'Gifted', who will present a musical evening based on 'Songs from the Shows' on the evening of Saturday, September 29 and a questions-and-answers evening with BBC Radio Manchester's popular presenter Allan Beswick on Friday, October 26, starting at 8.00pm.

Please note that the Harvest afternoon tea, originally scheduled for Saturday, October 20, will now take place a week earlier on Saturday, October 13, starting at 3.00pm.

We have a new book stall in church for anyone who wishes to browse or buy and from time to time we make available a Fair Trade stall, as we did last Sunday, the eighth Sunday after Trinity.

The Emmaus bible course continues to run on Tuesday evenings and on Thursday last we were out celebrating Holy Communion in the parish at both Hurstead and Ashcroft homes for the elderly.

This coming Sunday, August 5, we have our usual services at 8.00am (Eucharist) and 10.00am (Sung Eucharist).

This week's parish rota is as follows: lay assistants, M Young, S Moore; readers, G Barlow, S Topham; Intercessions, C Longhurst; sidespersons, E Burrow, J Ainsworth; refreshments, Graham, Sandra, Ashley.