Booking Baptisms and Weddings and Banns

We are always glad to hear from people who want to ask about a christening or a wedding in the church or who need to arrange for their banns to be called. We have people available in the vestry each Sunday from 12 noon to 12.45pm to help with these enquiries. If there is something else on in church at this time, the vestry can always be reached without going through the church by using the small door at the Partington Lane end of the church (the east end, nearest the Town Hall) and going in through the door on your left.

Christening : Obviously the first question will always be whether it is for an infant or for someone rather older. Most of our baptisms are of infants. but each year we usually have a few adult baptisms in the course of the year. When it is a candidate older than about 5, we would expect them to be involved in the process themselves. And when the baptism candidate is 8 or over at the time of the baptism, the service for the baptism of infants is now longer appropriate and the preparation pattern varies. In general, for candidates who will be 8 or over we would expect them to come to church a few times before we make the booking, just so that they see what it all means for themselves. 

When it is a christening for an infant - a baby or toddler - we will ask you the questions we need for the register, we will talk about the possible dates, and we will give information about the two preparation sessions we run and the service of blessing and welcome that we ask people to attend before the baptism itself. Christenings at Saint Peter's generally take place either at our service of baptism (held every Sunday at 12.15pm except on the first Sunday of the month and during Lent) or at our main Sunday mass at 10.30am. 

Marriage : The first thing will usually be to check that one of the parties has what is called a "qualifying connection" to enable the wedding legally to be at Saint Peter's. The most obvious of these is residence in the parish either now or in the past, but there are a series of others. Then we will ask you about date and time. That deals with the first set of issues. And then, often at a subsequent meeting, we are also required to check identity documents - we know it seems odd to think that anyone might book a wedding under a false name but it apparently does happen. And we will ask you the questions we need to know for completing the marriage registers.  And, of course, nearer the time of the wedding we meet to plan the service and talk about music, and, finally, for a rehearsal. 

Banns : Often there are people who are getting married elsewhere who need to have their banns called. We usually publish banns on the first three Sundays of the month at our 10.30am service, and after the third publication the certificate is available.