Crumbs from the Table

979?      First Church on the site of the present Parish Church (the picture below is an artist's impression of Bury parish church in 1485). This was the only church in the town of Bury until 1719 (see below).  1585      Parish church (re)built in the gothic style . 1650     During the Commonwealth, Henry Pendlebury was ordained for  Holcombe Chapelry.  1662     Having been ejected from the Church of England,  Henry Pendlebury of Holcombe   (1626-1695) held services at a Chapel on Bass Lane by Richard Kay, and others ejected from the C of E (replaced in 1712 by Dundee Chapel, Holcombe) 1669      The vicar of Bury parish reported to the Bishop of Chester that he heard several conventicles were "constantly kept at private houses of Independents, Presbyterians, Dippers and other such like jointly, of the bset rank of the yeomanry and other inferiors." 1689      ...

Last Easter (2022) I spent some time studying the days and dates of the events at the culmination of Christ's life on earth.  You may know that Jewish days are considered to begin on the preceding evening after nightfall (so the Sabbath begins on our Friday evening, and runs until sundown on Saturday).  Also, the names of the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread do not necessarily refer to what we think they refer to.  Fortunately the days of the Jewish months are numbered. The month in question is Nissan or Abib (these are two names for the same first month of the year) which falls around March/April.  On day 10 of the first month, the Passover lamb was to be "taken", and lived with the family before it was slain on 14 Nisan. If 14 Nisan fell on a Friday, then 10 Nisan would be a Monday. This may have some bearing on the meaning of Mark 14:1-9. On day 14 of the first month, at twilight, just before the end of the day, the Passover lamb was sacrificed. Accordin...