Arranging a Baptism or Wedding
 

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'.

It's more and more common to find adults who for some reason were not baptized as infants, and who want to be baptized later in life. This is always great, because it means you are choosing to do it for yourself, rather than just because your parents decided it. For those who were baptized as infants, Confirmation is about renewing your baptismal promises for yourself. If you want to be baptized as an adult, or confirmed, we invite you to attend a short preparation course. For more details, contact the Vicar.

Weddings

Since October 1, 2008, the new Marriage Measure has been in force. This introduced new qualifications for getting married in the Church of England, which we hope will make it easier to get married in the church of your choice.

The previous qualifications still apply, so that you can get married in a parish church if:

• one of you is resident in the parish
• you regularly attend worship in the church, so that you have qualified to be on the Electoral Roll (this usually means having habitually worshipped there for at least 6 months)

The new Measure also allows you to get married in a church if

• one of you was baptized in the parish
• one of you has been confirmed and your confirmation has been entered in the register book belonging to that parish
• one of you has lived in the parish for at least 6 months
• one of you has at any time habitually worshipped there for at least 6 months
• one of your parents has at any time during your lifetime lived in the parish for at least 6 months
• one of you has at any time during your lifetime habitually worshipped there for at least 6 months
• your parent or grandparent was married in the parish

You will need to provide evidence in support of claiming one of these qualifying connections. If you would like to know more about this, please contact me. Or you can find more information on the Church of England web site.

We do not normally conduct marriages where one partner has been previously married and is divorced with their previous spouse still living, but are sometimes able to provide a Service of Blessing. If this is your situation, please contact the Vicar so that we can talk about the best way forward.

As you will know, it takes a long time to arrange a wedding, so do get in touch with us as early as possible to get things started in the right way.

How do I know what parish I'm in?

Whatever qualifying connections you may have for getting married in the church, you will need to know what parish you live in. Here is a map of the Marston 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.