Baptism/Weddings/Funerals

Both St Luke's and Moor Lane churches take baptisms, weddings and funerals. These are significant events in any person's life, and as a church we are here to share these times with you. Everybody's situation is different, so we welcome you to contact one of the pastors to talk with us.

Baptisms

Baptism is a celebration of God’s love, a mark of belonging to God’s family and a commitment to going together on the journey of faith.

When we talk with people about baptism we talk about

Beginning: ... the start of a life-long journey to know God more, not just a single event.
Believing: ... trusting in God and His promises.
Belonging: ... becoming a part of the church; the life -long journey of faith is not meant to be travelled alone but with the help and support of others in the church as we learn how to live as part of God's family.
People of any age can be baptised:
i) Adults
Where someone was not baptised/christened as a baby, but comes to Christian faith as an adult, baptism can be arranged, usually by total immersion in water.
This service can be part of our morning service or part of a confirmation service.
ii) Infants/children ("Christening") When we have a baby baptised, we are saying that our greatest wish for them would be for them to grow up knowing God's love in Jesus for themselves and to follow him throughout their lives. This service therefore asks parents and godparents to speak on behalf of the child, committing themselves to bring their child up as a member of the Christian church.
We hold these services as part of our monthly family morning services .
To read more about baptisms in general, visit the Church of England website.

Service of Thanksgiving

There may be reasons why you feel a Christening Service is not the appropriate way right now to mark your child’s new life:
Some parents would rather leave baptism to when their child grows up and decides themselves to be baptised.
Some parents want a service to mark their child’s birth, but are not yet ready to make the promises about faith that the Christening Service asks.
Some parents want a small simple service to mark their child’s birth prior to a Christening Service that may take some time to organise.
In these cases, we are delighted to offer a Service of Thanksgiving. This takes place in our main morning service and would still be an appropriate service to invite family and friends to a celebration of your baby's birth, but it doesn't assume that parents want to make such big promises about their own faith.This is an appropriate service to invite family and friends to and you can still have a baptism at a later date. Find out more...

Confirmation

Many people who join the church wish to express their commitment to God by reaffirming for themselves the promises made for them at their baptism by their parents and godparents at a confirmation service. A member of the clergy will lead a few sessions to prepare you for this, but the service is always led by a Bishop who will normally use the opportunity to talk to the candidates about the responsibilities of adult Christian life and pray for them. She often addresses the congregation, too, and encourages them to support the candidates in the new step each is taking. Those being confirmed will then make their public profession of faith.
Again, the best place to start is to arrange to speak with a member of the clergy.
For more details see the Church of England website.
If having read this you want to go ahead with a service at St Luke's please contact the parish office to arrange to meet with a member of the clergy.
There is no cost for any of these services.

Weddings

We are delighted that you are thinking of a Church wedding; the good news is that you can marry here whether or not you go to church or have been christened, provided you meet the legal criteria and fulfill the parish residence or ‘church connection’ legal requirements.

At St Luke's, we do all we can to make a wedding service the very special day which all couples wish for in our beautiful modern church.

To find out more, make an appointment with one of our clergy via the Parish Office.

We look forward to meeting you and having the chance to talk things through.

If you live in our parish and are planning to get married in another Church of England church please download the banns application form print, complete and bring it to us us to arrange to have your banns read here.

To read more about weddings in general, visit the Church of England website.

A Service of Prayer and Dedication after a Civil Marriage

This service is for a husband and wife – already married – who wish to dedicate to God their life together. For example, where a couple have married in a civil ceremony, or have married abroad, and they wish to come to church to have their marriage "blessed". This can be a small service, with just the couple and some friends, or a larger service. See the Church of England website for more details. Please contact our Parish Office if you want to discuss this.

Thanksgiving for Marriage

Where a husband and wife want to reaffirm their vows together, perhaps to celebrate an anniversary or after a time of separation or difficulty in marriage, then we can offer a service of "Thanksgiving For Marriage". This too can be a small service, with just the couple and some friends, or a larger service. See the Church of England website for more details. Again, please contact our Parish Office if you want to discuss this.

Funerals

If you’ve just been bereaved, your first point of contact will normally be a local funeral director. If you’d like a minister from St Luke’s with Moor Lane Church to be involved in the funeral, or if you’d like to hold the funeral in church, please ask the funeral director to contact us before the date is fixed so we can make sure that someone is available. Once the funeral is booked, the person taking the funeral will arrange to come and meet the next of kin to talk about the arrangements and the kind of service you would like. They might also ask for some details of the person who has died to help prepare a eulogy. The funeral is a time to acknowledge your sense of grief and sorrow, but within us we may continue to carry that sense of grief and sorrow caused by the love we had for the person who died. After the funeral, we are available in the weeks and months to come. If this could be of help to you or if we can offer support in any other way, please let us know.

We also hold a special service on Remembrance Sunday at St Luke’s for those who have been bereaved in recent years and who would like a public opportunity to remember their loved ones.

To read more about funerals in general, visit the Church of England website.

Page updated

Report abuse