Human Rites

The birth of a child, finding someone special to love, getting and settling into a new home, losing a loved one through death — these are all moments in our lives for which most religious and spiritual traditions have developed rituals to help to mark the occasion and to enable us to express its importance to ourselves and to our friends and family. These ‘rites of passage’ can help us to feel supported, uplifted, enlightened and perhaps to feel the spirit of God at work in our lives.

At All Hallows we want to make these rites open to everyone who feel they would like to mark such an occasion, and here we aim to provide some basic information on the services that we currently offer.

Celebrating birth

A ceremony to celebrate the birth of a child may be called a welcoming, a naming, a dedication, a blessing, a thanksgiving, or, more traditionally, a baptism or christening. A baptism or christening tends to focus on welcoming the child into the world and also into the church, with a wish from the parents to have the child connected to the Christian faith. A welcoming, naming or thanksgiving ceremony is not a baptism, but provides an opportunity for a service of thanksgiving that is free of any commitment to Christian faith. The choice is yours. Whatever form of service you choose, we aim to make the service appropriate to your needs and personal to you and your family and friends.

Celebrating new life

An adult can also be baptised if they have not already been baptised as a child. Adults usually seek baptism because they have found a source of spiritual comfort and challenge from the Christian tradition. An adult who was baptised as a child and has found a renewed meaning in the Christian tradition in adulthood may want to mark this in a ceremony traditionally called confirmation. Or someone who has had a positive experience of change and renewal in their life may want a service of new life to celebrate this. We offer all of these options, and are always open to discussing people’s needs and wishes.

Celebrating love

Finding a special person with whom you want to share your life is a beautiful thing. We offer marriage services for straight couples, and also same-sex blessings for lesbian and gay couples. Whether straight or gay, marriage or blessing, our celebration of love services aim to help you focus on the importance of your relationship and your love for one another, and to provide you with an opportunity to make a public declaration of that love.

At All Hallows we recognise that sometimes relationships break down and people separate and get divorced. We have a policy of being open to marrying divorced people.

We also offer services for the renewal of vows. Maybe you have been through a rough patch in your relationship and have come through it stronger on the other side; maybe you have achieved a significant milestone in your years together. Whatever the reason, we are very open to working on an appropriate ceremony with you.

Celebrating a new home

Moving into a new home is both an exciting and frightening business: a ceremony of blessing can help with the settling-in process. Or maybe you have recently redecorated, or had a major change in the house. Whatever the occasion, a house blessing can help to make you aware that God’s love is present to us everywhere, including where we sleep, eat, and live much of our lives — our homes.

Celebrating the life and mourning the death of a loved one

We recognise the deep sense of loss many wish to express in funeral or memorial services. We seek to be sensitive to the needs and wishes of the bereaved, and to reflect a sense of the life and beliefs of the one who has died. Such ceremonies may often, therefore, involve more than mourning: they can be also a celebration of the deceased person’s life, and a thanksgiving.

We want to offer to anyone in the locality the opportunity of holding a funeral service for a loved one in church. Often people think that a church will only be interested in hosting a funeral service if the deceased was a churchgoer, and that otherwise the only option is for a service at the ‘crem’. This is not so, and our aim in every funeral is to make the service true to the deceased, and personal and meaningful for those who are facing their loss.

This page was last updated on Saturday, 07 May 2005

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