Information

How can I get my baby baptized? How can I be baptized? What about confirmation? How can I arrange a wedding at St Nicholas? Who can get married in church anyway?

Well, here are some of the answers. If you don't see the answer to your question here, contact the Vicar.

Baptisms

The Church of England has always believed that it is right to baptize the infant children of Christian parents. The best time for this to be done is during the main Sunday service, because the baby is being baptized into the church, and it makes sense for as many as possible of the members of the church to be there.

But St Nicholas church is rather a small building and gets quite full on a Sunday morning, so we also offer Sunday afternoon baptisms. Anyone living in the parish is entitled to ask for baptism in the parish church. Candidates living outside the parish can only be baptized with the consent of the vicar of their own parish, and in any case there should be a good reason for the baptism to take place here, e.g. a long-standing and continuing family connection with St Nicholas'.

Weddings

In order for you to be married in the Church of England, we will need to ask you certain questions

• Have you been married before, and if so, is your former partner still living?

• Are you over 18 years old? (If you are aged 16 or 17 you may only be married with your parents' consent.)
• Has at least one of you been baptized?
• Is one of you resident in the parish? Here is a map of the parish boundary. If it shows you are not in this parish, go to A Church Near You and enter your postcode to see a map of the parish in which you live.
• If not resident, is one of you a regular worshipping member of St Nicholas' Church?

If you answer YES to these four questions, we will probably be able to marry you. But it takes a long time to arrange, so please contact us as soon as you start to plan for your wedding. If you have any questions about whether or not you can be legally married here, contact the Vicar, again.

There are lots of useful sites on the World Wide Web, with information that will help you plan your wedding. One of the best is Wedding Guide UK

They have a page especially about the Church of England Marriage Service