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Life Events

Are you planning a baptism, wedding or funerals?

Thanksgiving for the birth of a child

At St Mary’s church we love to celebrate the birth of a child with services of ‘thanksgiving’ or ‘dedication’. These are always joyous occasions and happen within the context of a Sunday service, normally at 11:15am – on any Sunday of the month. We gather the church family, the family and friends of the child, and together give thanks to God for the wonderful gift of the baby. We pray for and bless the child and their parents, and this is a service offered freely to anyone and everyone who would like to have it.

Infant Baptism

Infant Baptism gives the opportunity for members of the church to bring their children before God in a public declaration of their intent to raise them as followers of Jesus and within the family of the Christian Church. At the baptism service, the whole church family also makes commitments to support the child as he or she grows up within the community of faith. If you are wanting to explore baptism for your child and are not currently part of at St Mary’s community, we would love to welcome you to our Sunday services and inform you about our midweek groups for families and young children.

Adult Baptism

Whenever it happens, whether as a baby, child or adult, baptism is at the heart of an amazing journey of faith as a follower of Jesus Christ. You are never too old to take this step and being baptized as an adult is a wonderful experience.
You may have been baptized at a christening when you were a child or in a different Christian tradition, and there are always special ways to renew the promises that were made then in a fresh way as you discover more about what it means to live them out in your life. At St Mary’s, we would be delighted to offer you a full immersion baptism.

Weddings

We believe that marriage is a wonderful gift from God and would be delighted to welcome you to the beautiful and historic setting of St Mary’s Church. St Mary’s combines the best of a traditional setting and church building over 1000 years old with a lovely church hall with modern facilities including a sound and media system, central heating which might accommodate the service that you particularly have in mind. We can organise musicians, organists and flower arrangers or you can bring your own! The church and Hall are fully wheelchair and pram accessible, with disabled toilets and nappy changing facilities in the church hall.

One of the clergy team who will lead the service will help you choose suitable readings, hymns and prayers and advise on anything else you would like included. There are also facilities at St Mary’s to play your favourite music during your big day. In the first instance please contact us for more information and to enquire about dates contact the Church Office.

BANNS are called on a series of three Sundays, usually consecutively, in the three months before the wedding. At St Mary’s we normally publish banns as part of the notices at the 9.30am service. On these occasions those present are asked if there is any reason why the couple should not be married. You are welcome to come to hear your banns being read at any of the services and it’s great to welcome you to St Mary’s, but it isn’t compulsory. If one of the couple lives in the parish of another Church of England church, banns also need to be called there. In this case, a banns certificate from that church will need to be forwarded to St Mary’s after the third calling. Dates for the publishing of banns at St Mary’s are arranged with the Church Office.

Funerals

Funerals are both a time of thanksgiving for the life of a loved one and an occasion to commit them to God’s care. The services themselves give the opportunity for family and friends to come together to give thanks for the life of their loved one to express grief, and to commend the person into God’s keeping.

Regarding the actual thanksgiving and funeral services themselves some people find planning the funeral with family and friends helps in their grieving. Perhaps you already know something of what your loved one wanted. You may even have planned the service together some time ago. If you are uncertain, someone from our team who will lead the service can help you choose suitable readings, hymns and prayers and advise on anything else you would like included. There are also facilities at St Mary’s to play a loved one’s favourite music and to show family photos on a large screen. Unfortunately we do not have any new burial plots available, but have space for interment of ashes.

At St Mary’s we not only have experienced licensed team to help you, but a dedicated Bereavement Team trained to support individuals and families through times of grief and loss.

Some deaths will be especially traumatic, distressing or unexpected. The Church has special funerals for children, or after sudden or violent deaths, including suicide.