2022 was St Peter’s 900th Anniversary! The anniversary year was marked with a series of celebratory services and events. The programme of events that took place throughout this special year is listed below.
PALM SUNDAY, 10th April, 11.00am, Holy Communion with Bishop Philip (A buffet lunch was served)
Children’s Workshops
Thursday 14th April, 10.00am (and every Thursday during School holidays until 12 noon), “Walking in the Steps of St Peter” – Bible Stories, Crafts, Lots of Fun, and a Light Lunch
GOOD FRIDAY, 15th April, 2.00pm, Service with Bishop Philip
EASTER SATURDAY, 16th April, 6.00pm, Service of Confirmation with Bishop Philip
EASTER SUNDAY, 17th April, 11.00am, Holy Communion with Bishop Philip
900th Anniversary Talks
Wednesday 20th April, 7.30pm, “POVERTY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE”: Andrew Pratt MBE, Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner (Refreshments served)
Wednesday 4th May, 7.30pm, “ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE CHANGE”: Revd Sam Cheeseman, Chaplain to the Bishop of Blackburn (Refreshments served)
Wednesday 18th May, 7.30pm, “FAITH IN A MULTI-FAITH SOCIETY”: Revd Sarah Gill, Vicar of St Stephen & St James, Blackburn and Diocesan Inter-Faith Adviser (Refreshments served)
PILGRIMAGE TO WHALLEY ABBEY, Sunday 22nd May, 6.00pm, Walk from St Peter’s followed by service at Whalley Abbey
ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, Sunday 29th May, 10.30am, Service at Blackburn Cathedral with The Archbishop of York
Pentecost Sunday, 5th June
2.00pm, Procession from the Town Centre to St Peter’s Church
3.00pm, Service of Celebration in St Peter’s Church, This was a civic service plus invited guests followed by a Jubilee Afternoon Tea to honour the 70th Anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne. A procession through the town centre, accompanied by the Accrington Pipe Band, took place before the service.
“SUMMER SERENADE”, Sunday 26th June, 7.00pm – Burnley Municipal Choir with guest soloist Kathleen Wilkinson
ST PETER’S DAY, Wednesday 29th June, 7.00pm, Holy Communion with Bishop Julian
HERITAGE DAY, Saturday 10th September, 11.00am, A celebration of the past, present and future of St Peter’s from 11.00am to 4.00pm. Displays, stalls, refreshments, music, scenes from the life of St Peter, and more…
HARVEST FESTIVAL, Sunday 25th September, 11.00am, Family Service with the Ven. Andrew Brown (Buffet lunch)
ALL SAINTS, Sunday 30th October, 11.00am, United Holy Communion Service, joint service with St Stephen’s (Buffet Lunch)
900th Anniversary Fair
Saturday 19th November, 11.00am – 2.00pm, opened by The Mayor of Burnley, Cllr Cosima Towneley
Stalls included: cakes, flowers & plants, crafts, toiletries, tombola and refreshments
Plus: Games, children’s activites and entertainment by St Peter’s Young Singers
Fauré Requiem
Sunday 20th November, 6.00pm, sung by Burnley and Pendle Deanery Choir, (Soloists: Emily Grace Broughton & Andrew Buchanan; Organist: David Thornton; Conductor: Philip Tomlinson)
Free admission with retiring collection
Free parking in the schoolyard (Rawcliffe Street)
Refreshments available after the performance
In memory of Diana Holden, Peter Pike and David Smith
ADVENT SUNDAY, 27th November, 11.00am, Family Service with Bishop Philip followed by an All-Age Advent Workshop (Buffet lunch)
“THE MESSIAH”, Saturday 3rd December, 7.00pm, sung by Burnley Municipal Choir
Merchandise
A range of branded merchandise was available, including T-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, bags, pens, bookmarks, calendars, mugs and keyrings.
Book of St Peter
We asked members of the public to come forward, make a donation and copy out a verse from the Letters of St Peter. There are two Letters from St Peter in the Holy Bible. We had a stall every Saturday in Burnley Shopping Centre starting on the 26th February until all 166 verses had been written. The copied Letters have gone towards a beautiful book, a keepsake for the Church and Town.
Chair of the 900th Anniversary Planning Committee, Carol Waddington.
A Celebration of Burnley and St Peter’s as a community for over 900 years
1122 was the year when the granting of a charter established Burnley as a place ‘with a church’. This was the first recorded evidence of a church existing in the little town on the River Brun, the Brown river. It is thought that worship had been taking place in a wooden building since the establishment of the settlement in c. 750, but there is no written evidence to confirm this.
We celebrating nine-hundred years of Christian worship in the place where our town started – small wooden houses and a church on the river bend, built from the trees cleared to make the space to live and farm the land. Walter Bennett, the great Burnley historian describes the clearing as being from what is now Thompson Park, to what became Turf Moor (the place where the villagers were allowed to dig turf for burning on their fires, and to what is now the Keirby Roundabout. The canal did not appear until the late 1700s. The land was split into a patchwork of allotments each with a wooden dwelling and attached wooden shed for your animals. And that was Burnley in 1122. And there was a church there.
The building has changed, of course, but it is still here.
St Peter's Church 