Baptisms:
The Blyth Valley Team Ministry is committed to an open baptism policy in accordance with the teaching and practice of the Church of England. We seek to make it widely known that we welcome all for baptism (sometimes called christening) regardless of their parents’ marital status or their own. We will baptise all adults and teenagers who ask for baptism, and all children whose parents or legal guardians bring them. If a person comes from outside the Blyth Valley Team Ministry, the goodwill of their own parish priest must be sought.
Marriages:
We welcome marriages across all the churches in the Blyth Valley. Please see the attached policy.
Funerals:
If you are reading this, it may be because someone close to you has died or is dying. It may be that you are dying, or simply that you wish to make advance provision for your funeral service. It is important to understand that it is part of the ministry of the priest, when asked, to be with the dying to comfort them and to prepare them for death. When someone is in danger of death or has died, it is appropriate to call out the priest at any hour of the day or night. It is the right of everyone to have a funeral service in church.
Soon after a person has died, you should contact the priest at around the time you contact the funeral director, especially if you wish prayers to be said in the home in the presence of the body. As well as anointing the sick with holy oil, the Church of England will anoint the dying and pray at the deathbed. If a person dies or is dying in hospital, you may wish to contact the hospital chaplain. Your parish priest will still look after you and arrange the funeral service with you. The priest works closely with the funeral director to ensure that you have the kind of funeral service that best reflects the life of the person who has died. He or she will usually visit you at home, unless for some reason it is better to meet at the rectory or vicarage. At a funeral service, there will be grief but there will also be thanksgiving for a person’s life. The person who has died is commended into the eternal love and mercy of God. There is a form of service that is flexible, and there is plenty of room for music, poetry, prose and prayer that reflects a person’s life.
If a funeral service is to be followed by cremation, the entire service, including the committal, can appropriately take place in the parish church. You may feel that all that is necessary can be done in church, and that there is no need to attend a crematorium. As the nearest crematorium to the Blyth Valley is 30 minutes' drive away, this makes it easier for the family to greet the people who have come to pay their respects and to support them, and perhaps to invite them for refreshments.
Many of our churchyards are still open for burial. After a service in a church where the churchyard is closed, interment may be at Halesworth Cemetery, which is administered by East Suffolk Council. There are also cemeteries at Wenhaston and Walpole, administered by the Parish Councils.
It is always possible to have a service of thanksgiving for a person’s life some time after the funeral. Importantly, your connection with the priest and the parish church need not end after the funeral, unless you wish it to. There can be on-going support if requested.