The Bishop chats with Mayor and Mayoress (left) and Mr and Mrs Dan Jones after the service.

A Carol service, attended by about 250 people on Sunday, 2nd January 1972, was the last service to be held at St Peter's Parish Church, Burnley, for three months, while the church undergoes its mammoth springclean. The service took the form of nine lessons and carols, and a New Year prayer was read. The Bishop of Burnley, the Rt. Rev. R. C. C. Watson, conducted the service and also read one of the lessons. Representatives from different organisations in the town were invited to read the other lessons. Representing civic and political life was the Mayor of Burnley, Ald. D. Parkinson; Burnley's MP, Mr Dan Jones; the coroner, Mr H. G. W. Cooper; and the Town Clerk, Mr C. V. Thornley. Children from St Peter's were also very much to the fore at the weekend when they held a special children's service and prize Sunday.

No special New Year services were held in the church at the weekend, but the normal services were well attended. Other churches in the district reported a similarly quiet weekend, but attendances on the whole were very good.