St Michael's, Twerton » Weddings/Christenings http://stmichaelstwerton.com Making the main thing the main thing Wed, 01 Sep 2010 20:39:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Thanksgivings and Baptisms http://stmichaelstwerton.com/thanksgivings-and-baptisms/ http://stmichaelstwerton.com/thanksgivings-and-baptisms/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:03:31 +0000 Rich http://stmichaelstwerton.com/?p=552 It’s great that you are enquiring about a Thanksgiving or a Baptism here at St Michael’s. We are thrilled that you are eager to find out more and are considering either to have a service for yourchild or for yourself. We hope that this page helps answer some of your questions and will help you as you think through whether this is the right step for you at this time. Of course reading all this is fine, but we would love to chat to you about it all, so if you want to find out more please do call Richard Wilson on 01225 421438 or email him at richard@stmichaelstwerton.co.uk

A Thanksgiving Service

You may have heard about a service called a ‘Thanksgiving’.  Some people call it a ‘Naming Ceremony’ or a ‘Blessing’. This service is offered to everyone who would like it, whether you attend church or not and whether or not you have given your life to Jesus. It is a wonderful service which (as it says on the tin) gives thanks to God for the life of your child and asks for God’s protection and God’s help in bringing the child up. At a thanksgiving service the mister will lay hands on your child and pray for you and your child. They will give you a candle as a sign of Jesus’ light in your lives and children can have godparents to support them.

This is an increasingly popular service as many parents today are not sure whether they are comfortable saying that they are completely committed to Jesus and to belonging to the church, but are sure that they want to mark the birth of their child with a service in a church and to ask God to bless them. Also many parents want to leave the decision about following Jesus to their children – letting them decide when they are older.

The other great thing about this service is that it can take place outside normal service times making it easy to arrange around a family party or celebration.  Also because the service doesn’t have to be part of a Church service Parents can also give it a very personal flavour with your own music or powerpoint slideshow.

Baptism

Although being baptised as an adult and being baptised as a child (often referred to as ‘Christening’) are different, the meaning for both is the same. However, because there are differences between them we have prepared two further sections – one called ‘Adult Baptism’ and the other called ‘Children’s Baptism’ – to make things as clear as we can.

What’s it all about?

The New Testament teaches that Baptism is the act by which a person, having openly declared a trust in Jesus Christ and a desire to follow him, is joined to the Christian Family, the Church. Baptism involves both a personal allegiance to Jesus and a commitment to the life, fellowship and worship of the church.  In other words it means that a person has been so gripped by Jesus that they want to make him the centre of their life…

Baptism is a first step in response to the gift of new life in Jesus.  Importantly, baptism is an identity marker – a badge – that not only identifies us as belonging to Jesus, but also helps us remain faithful to him all our lives. Through Baptism we are saying that we have died to our old lives and now live for Christ alone. Through baptism we are trusting Jesus for the forgiveness of our sins and for the power and freedom of the Spirit to live a new kind of life – the kind of life that Jesus had.

As a church here at St Michael’s our main aim is to bringing people to faith in Jesus – Children and Adults. We therefore encourage those who come to faith (e.g. through the Alpha course) to make their commitment to Jesus public in baptism. Baptism is normally administered at a public Sunday service when a large number of people are present, either in the traditional manner of sprinkling with water from the font, or by total immersion. Baptism is not a private thing but a public thing and having it in our main service gives the congregation as a whole the opportunity to welcome new members and to remember their own profession of faith made to God in their baptism.

From early times, the Church has also baptised children who are not yet old enough to profess faith for themselves, on the grounds of the obvious faith of the parents and on the understanding that they will teach them about Jesus and how to be a disciple like them. Just as children learn language simply by being surrounded by it and by trying it out, we baptize children of Christian parents in the expectation that they will naturally learn from them what ‘living in Christ’ means. We see that children of Christian parents belong to Jesus right from the start of their lives and because baptism is a badge that says “I belong to Jesus”, we think that Children of Christian parents should also be baptised if their parents want them to be.

But this all depends on faith… and consequently as part of the baptism service parents and godparents are asked about their faith and called upon to make public their own love of God and their discipleship of Jesus. In line with Anglican tradition, parents and godparents who choose baptism for their children are required to have been baptised and ideally also confirmed or to be fully communicating members of the Church.  It is expected that parents will be fully involved in the life of the church community, worshiping with the church on Sundays and growing the their faith.

What to do?

If you are a parent, have a read of the information on the children’s baptism page and have a think about it all.  If you are considering baptism for yourself click here instead.  If you want to take it further the best person to call is the Rector, Richard Wilson.  Preparing for baptism usually takes several months because baptism is so important to the us as a church… but why not give Richard a call.  He’d be delighted to come and talk more with you about it all.


]]> http://stmichaelstwerton.com/thanksgivings-and-baptisms/feed/ 0 Weddings http://stmichaelstwerton.com/weddings/ http://stmichaelstwerton.com/weddings/#comments Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:04:48 +0000 Rich http://stmichaelstwerton.com/?p=261 Getting married at St Michael’s

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13.4-7

We are really delighted that you are thinking about getting married in church and have come to St Michael’s. This information has been produced to help you with your planning and to complete all the necessary arrangements.

New Rules

The Church of England has been considering for some time possible alternatives to the calling of banns and widening the choice of places in which couples can marry. In July 2007, the General Synod overwhelmingly passed the Church of England Marriage Measure and it received the Royal Assent on 22nd May. The Archbishops have now signed an instrument bringing all the provisions of the Measure into force from 1st October 2008.

This means that you can be married in St Michael’s if:

  • You currently live in the parish
  • You have, at any time, lived in the parish for at least 6 months
  • You have been a regular member of the church for at least 6 months;
  • You were baptised in the parish.
  • Your confirmation was registered here
  • You have a parent that has at any time during your lifetime lived in the parish for at least 6 months
  • You have a parent that has at any time during your lifetime been a regular member of the church for at least 6 or
  • You have a parent or grandparent that was married in the parish.

Booking the day

You can be married on any day except Sundays and public holidays. Simply e-mail, phone or write to the Rector.  He will then send you an application form (or you can download one from here which you can send in).

Your wedding is not formally booked until you return the application form duly signed by both of you and it has all been agreed.  We cannot say at this stage who will be conducting the service.

BANNS
The legal preliminary for a wedding service in church is normally the publication of something called ‘banns’, over three consecutive Sundays in the parish church or churches where you both live.  Basically this means that we read out your names in our main service to make sure that there are no legal reasons for you not to be married…  If you both live in our parish, then your banns are simply called here, at St Michel’s.  However, if one of you lives outside our parish, then you need to arrange for your banns to be called in the parish church where you live. You must do this at least four weeks before you are married: six months would be safer! Once your banns are called, the vicar or rector there will provide you with a certificate, which will be needed for the service: this costs £30. If you are on the Electoral Roll of a parish other than where you live, you still need to arrange for the banns to be called in your resident parish.  Click here to download a banns form.

ORDER OF SERVICE
We use the marriage service from Common Worship, unless you specifically request otherwise.  You can access this on www.cofe.anglican.org/commonworship and we have outlined a normal service below.

Are you having a special leaflet printed? Or will you use our hymn books? If you are having your Order of Service printed privately, please send a draft to the Rector in good time.  For the service you will need to choose some hymns, normally two or three.  Again the Rector may help you choose hymns that are suitable for the occasion.

You also need to decide which music will be played at other points during the service.

You may wish to ask a friend to read the lessons from the Bible, which you yourself may choose from these passages:

  • Romans 12.1,2,9-13
  • Romans 15.1-3,5-7,13
  • 1 Corinthians 13
  • Ephesians 3.14-end
  • Ephesians 4.1-6
  • Ephesians 5.21-end
  • Philippians 4.4-9
  • Colossians 3.12-171
  • John 3.18-end
  • 1 John 4.7-12
  • Matthew 7.21,24-end
  • Mark 10.6-9,13-16
  • John 2.1-11
  • John 15.1-8
  • John 15.9-17

Here is a typical outline of a Wedding service:

  • Introduction
  • The Welcome
  • The Declarations

N, will you take N to be your wife? Will you love her, comfort her, honour and protect her, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to her as long as you both shall live? He answers: I will.
N, will you take N to be your husband? Will you love him, comfort him, honour and protect him, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live? She answers: I will.

  • The Marriage
  • The Vows

I, N, take you, N, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part; according to God’s holy law. In the presence of God I make this vow.
I, N, take you, N, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward; for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part; according to God’s holy law. In the presence of God I make this vow.

  • The Giving of Rings

N, I give you this ring as a sign of our marriage. With my body I honour you, all that I am I give to you, and all that I have I share with you, within the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I
N, I give you this ring as a sign of our marriage. With my body I honour you, all that I am I give to you, and all that I have I share with you, within the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
N, I receive this ring as a sign of our marriage. With my body I honour you, all that I am I give to you, and all that I have I share with you, within the love of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

  • The Proclamation
  • The Collect
  • Readings
  • Sermon
  • Prayers
  • The Blessing of the Marriage
  • Registration of the Marriage
  • The Dismissal

FLOWERS
There are always flowers in church but you may wish to add some of your own.  You may remove any of your own display of flowers in church for the reception, except those on the Communion table.

PREPARATION
Marriage is a very serious step and we would like to do all we can to help you prepare for a lifelong, happy marriage.  We therefore aim to see each couple separately to talk about what it means to be married, normally three months before the wedding itself. Please phone the Rector to arrange this meeting.   We also invite all couples to a special wedding preparation morning where we go through some practicalities and also talk about how to make marriage the best it can be.  Most couples also have a simple rehearsal the evening before the wedding.

COSTS
These are revised annually in January. Click here for the latest costs…

PHOTOGRAPHS
We are very happy for you to have a photographer/video operator at the service to record the happy occasion but please note: They must be unobtrusive as we don’t want anything to distract from the marriage itself; No flash photography or additional artificial lighting is allowed during the service; There is a video copyright fee

If it is raining, we are happy for you to spend half an hour in church taking photographs after the service.

FINALLY
We wish you every happiness in your life together and pray that God will bless you both in the years ahead. If there is anything we can do to help, either now or in the future, please contact us.

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