Check back here regularly to find out what's going on at Radcliffe Parish Church of St. Mary. See our events page for all upcoming events

Fantastic afternoon tea event on Saturday in aid of the Breast Cancer Now charity, thank you to everyone who baked, donated and supported us. We raised over £580 for a very worthwhile cause. Thank you

We continue to get many queries and messages regarding the condition of our churchyard which we would like to address. Radcliffe Parish Church of St Mary (specifically the Parochial Church Council) are responsible for, and bear all the costs of the upkeep of both the Grade 1 Listed Building and its grounds. As the churchyard is still open for burials, we cannot get any assistance from the council groundworkers that other churches may have.

Historically the maintenance of the churchyard was funded through a number of small ‘bequests’ left to the church for the sole purpose of paying for the upkeep of the grounds. These funds were exhausted around 2018/2019. This meant that we were faced with finding the money to pay for a gardener on top of the ever increasing day to day running costs and it was agreed that it was not financially viable if we were to keep the church running. This decision was not taken lightly.

With a small and aging congregation, the task was impossible for us to manage as a church and a campaign was started through social media to organise volunteer work parties. The first of these was in 2020 and we had a great response from the community. Work was halted through Covid restrictions, but when we began again we were joined by the Radcliffe Litter Pickers. They have continued to organise monthly work parties on the 1^st Sunday of the month and do their absolute best, in all weathers, to keep on top of the maintenance, and for that we are extremely grateful.

If you have visited the churchyard you will understand the scale of the task, especially in the summer months. We have recently used money from fundraising to employ a gardener on a one off cut in the hopes that the volunteers can keep on top of it going forward, and this has cost us in excess of £1000. To do this twice a month from March to August is just not an option for us with the funds at our disposal.

We appreciate the historical significance of the church and its location in Radcliffe Manor. We care greatly for our church, its grounds and the visitors who come from near and far, & will always do our utmost to be a welcoming environment to all. But in the ever changing world we cannot do this without your help. If you can help with funding you can use the donation QR code  or the link to our Give a Little page, both on our home page. If you would like to join a wonderful group of volunteers, we can always use the extra support, tools are provided and there are tasks for all abilities.

During the recent gardening, we have come across a number of graves which now have unauthorised ‘memorials’ and additions placed there. There are strict rules regarding allowable headstones/memorials set out by Manchester Diocese that we, as a PCC must adhere to (https://www.manchester.anglican.org/content/pages/documents/4d68251c41bbcb70f3ec99e4391117d263e7537e.pdf section 2.2 Graves & Memorials) . We would respectfully ask that these additions are removed as soon as possible, please contact the church for further information if you are unsure.

Thank you as always for your support.

The PCC of Radcliffe Parish Church of St Mary

We are pleased to announce that we have been awarded our Eco Church Bronze award! We are commited to making a conscious effort to care for God's creation in every aspect of our lives, both as a church congregation and in our homes.

To build on this we have decided that the theme for our Heritage Open Days will be all things Eco. Please see iur events page for further details.

The sun was shining at this months Saturday Cafe. The perfect day to welcome the newly appointed High Sheriff of Greater Manchester, Eamonn O'Neal & his wife Sheila. During  an item on Eamonn's Radio Manchester show recently, around the theme of 'hidden gems',  Gill Smith from Radcliffe Litter Pickers called in to talk about the history surrounding our church & Radcliffe Tower and the volunteer groups in Radcliffe. Following this, Tina Harrison & Gill (as part of Growing Together Radcliffe) invited Eamonn to visit our monthly coffee morning.

Both Eamonn & Sheila took time to chat with our congregation members and visitors as we showed them around the church and the tower ruins. Eamonn then spoke about the role of High Sheriff, its history and what it involves today with particular interest in volunteer groups in our communities. 

It was a beautiful spring morning when the Mayor of Bury, Cllr. Walmsley and her husband joined us for our Sunday Eucharist, led by Canon Ian Jorysz. They took a keen interest in the history of our beautiful church and spent time speaking with our congregation over refreshments following the service.

This also marked the last service that Ian with us before taking up his new role as Canon Precenter at Manchester Catherdral, we are grateful that he has been able to join us on many occasions over the last 12 moths and wish him well as his ministry takes a new path.

The numbers attending Sunday services is creeping up slowly and no one has reported feeling unsafe.  Thankfully, most of us are now able to get about far more so perhaps, if you are now getting out to the shops etc you might consider coming back to church. 

It was sadly agreed unanimously at Sept 9th AGM meeting that all future meetings should be postponed till 10th March 2021 when it will be decided if it's safe and viable to restart the meetings again. This was the first meeting since March and whilst everyone was able to wear a face covering and social distance between each other, given the  continual changes to rules, it was decided it would be hard to try to book people in advance  to do talks not knowing if we'd have to cancel last minute or if they would themselves be able to attend. It was therefore agreed by everyone that it was best and in everyone's interest to put the meetings on hold till next year when it is hoped things may be different.

Rev. Elizabeth Binns made the hard decision to retire at the end of 2020. We thank Elizabeth for all the hard work (and it was hard especially this last year) and for all the support she gave St Mary's and the greater team and congregation. 

We wish her all the best for the next chapter in her

life and we look forward to seeing her again when she helps us out with cover.

In order to give you a little helping hand over the coming weeks iChild has opened up our entire bank of iChild crafts, activities and education resources. For the next month all resources on the iChild website (www.ichild.co.uk) are completely free to use. These resources can be used by anyone or any school/nursery looking after children around the world, especially the millions in lock-down. (If you are not a member, registration is quick, simple and free).