Life’s Big Occasions
Baptisms. Weddings. Funerals.
Life Events
There are times in our lives when we turn to the Church for support and celebration. Baptism, wedding and funeral services are important markers in life, and we are here for you at those times and all times inbetween.
Baptisms & Thanksgivings
The birth of a baby is a momentous time in the life of any family. God delights in the new arrival of a child and wants to celebrate that event with the family, by way of a christening.
Kirkheaton Parish offers parents two types of christening: Baptism and Thanksgiving for the Birth of a Child. Parents must attend a three evening course to learn about these christening types, and it is then for them to decide which type they feel is right for their child. Baptism requires parents and god-parents to make public declarations of faith in Jesus Christ, promise to bring up their child/god-child in the Christian faith (through prayer, example and teaching), and bring their child to church regularly to worship with their spiritual family. If parents are committed to honouring these promises and declarations, they may choose baptism.
However, some parents do not feel able to make the very serious declarations and promises that a baptism involves, or they wish to leave the decision as to whether or not to be baptised to their child when he or she is old enough to make that decision for him or herself. These parents can therefore choose Thanksgiving for the Birth of a Child. This allows parents to mark their child’s entrance into the world with a church service, to thank God for their child and to celebrate with their family and friends, but parents do not make within this service promises that God will hold them to.
If you would like a Baptism or Thanksgiving for your child at either of our worship centres, please contact the Parish Office on 01484 531449, to book onto the next preparation course.
Weddings
Marriage was created by God to be one of the stabilising bedrocks of human society. It is the civic (and, in a religious wedding, the spiritual) union of a man and a woman, who commit themselves to each other for life. Whilst couples who marry in a purely civil ceremony are just as married as couples who wed in church, for those with a Christian faith – however unsure or tentative that faith might be – marrying in church does add something special, indefinable and precious to their wedding. It invites God into their marriage from its very first day, seeking God’s blessing for their union to be happy, healthy and lifelong.
If you or your fiancé(e) live in Kirkheaton Parish, you are entitled to marry at either St John the Baptist’s, Kirkheaton, or St Bartholomew’s, Grange Moor (subject to marriage preparation and payment of wedding fees). If you don’t live in Kirkheaton Parish but you have some connection to the parish which makes you want to marry here, it may well be possible for you to do so. If this is the case, please ring Ian, the Rector, on (01484) 532410, and he will explore with you how we can make a Kirkheaton Parish wedding possible. Enquiries to book and pay a deposit on a wedding should then be made with the Parish Administrator on (01484) 531449.
Any couple marrying in Kirkheaton Parish need to undertake marriage preparation, which involves a one-day course led by two couples within the church who know a thing or two about building a happy and lifelong marriage. This course usually takes place once a year, on a Saturday in January, for all the couples who are planning to marry that year. You’ll then have a wedding rehearsal a few days before the big day, and then an incredible wedding in either of our beautiful buildings.
Funerals
If you are reading this section because you have just lost a loved one, the whole of the worshipping community of St John the Baptist’s, Kirkheaton, and St Bartholomew’s, Grange Moor, send you their prayers and deepest condolences. We are truly sorry for your loss.
If your loved one wanted a Church of England funeral led by one of the ministers of Kirkheaton Parish, please let your funeral director know this, and the funeral director will contact our Parish Administrator on your behalf to book the funeral location and date. Your loved one can have a funeral at either St John’s or St Bartholomew’s, or at a local crematorium, as you prefer. In the weeks following the funeral, a member of our Lay Pastoral Team will phone you periodically to ask how you are doing, and to see if we can help you spiritually and emotionally in any further way. On Remembrance Sunday each year (the second Sunday in November), we hold a special service in the afternoon for all families who have lost a loved one that year, to hear their loved one’s name read out and to light a candle in their memory. The Parish Administrator sends out invitations to this service in September.
