Weddings, baptisms and funerals
The three occasions most people come to a parish church for, and the three we are asked about most by people who have never been to a service.
Weddings
You have more right to be married here than you probably think.
If you live in the parish, or are on the church electoral roll, or can show a qualifying connection — baptised here, confirmed here, a parent who married here, six months' residence at any point in your life — you have a legal right to be married in this church, whether or not you have ever been to a service in it.
Ring the office before you book a venue for the reception. Dates go eighteen months ahead, the conversation is free, and it is much easier to find out early that a Saturday in June is already taken.
Baptisms and thanksgivings
Two different things, and plenty of families choose the second.
Baptism
Usually within the Parish Eucharist, so the congregation is there — which is the point of the promises they make. Free, always. Godparents should themselves be baptised; everything else is flexible.
Thanksgiving
A short service giving thanks for a birth, with no promises made on anyone's behalf. For families who want to mark it without committing to something they are unsure of. Also free.
Adult baptism and confirmation
Less unusual than people assume. There is a conversation first, over as many coffees as it takes, and the bishop comes once a year.
Funerals
Anyone who lives in this parish may have their funeral here, whether or not they ever came through the door and whatever they believed. There is no charge for the church or for the priest.
If you are reading this because somebody has just died: ring the office number below. Out of hours it diverts to a mobile that is answered. You do not need to have arranged a funeral director first, and you do not need to know what you want.
We keep a book of remembrance in the north aisle, and on the Sunday nearest All Souls we read aloud the names of everyone whose funeral we have taken in the past year, and anyone else you ask us to.