A Christian wedding
The historic order of marriage, within a Mass or as a simpler service.
Parish Services
Rites and ceremonies
Offered by our parish priest to anyone, of any faith or none, as part of our ministry. Choose the kind of ceremony you are looking for. Not sure what you need? Just ask.
Not planning a ceremony, but need someone to talk to? Pastoral care is for anyone.
Held at the place of your choosing.
Love
Only one thing is needed to please God: to do even the smallest things out of great love – love, and always love.St Faustina Kowalska
We believe that God is love, and that no act of love is ever wasted. It is found less in grand gestures than in small faithfulness: a hand held, a promise kept, a meal shared, a quiet word to someone who needs to hear it. That is the heart of every rite we offer, and the measure of all we do. Love asks only that we keep choosing it, most of all when it is hard.
Marriage and blessings
A blessing of your marriage
For couples who have married at the register office and would like their marriage blessed.
Renewal of vows
Marking an anniversary or a new beginning, with prayer and blessing.
Getting to know you. The heart of any rite is the time we spend together beforehand. The more we talk about you, your family and what matters to you, the more truly it will speak for you, so we will make as much time for that as you can give.
New life
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Psalm 139:14
Welcoming a new life into the embrace of the faith is a moment of immense joy, and a reminder of the sincere duty we all hold to one another. It is a great privilege and a remarkable responsibility, and each and every person welcomed into the arms of a loving God is a blessing upon the parish and the world it serves.
Baptism and thanksgiving
Baptism
The Christian rite of welcome, for children and adults.
A thanksgiving
Thanks for the gift of a child, with a reading, prayers and a blessing, but no water.
Death
Nothing quite prepares us for the loss of someone we love.
When a life reaches its closing chapter, we call it terminal. The word comes from the Latin terminus, a boundary, and further back from an ancient root, ter: a post or peg set in the ground to mark where one place ends and another begins. That distinction matters to us at Sancta Humanitas. A boundary is not an ending.
In the grip of grief it is easy to fall into despair, and that is only human. But when we find a moment of repose, even in the hardest days, it is our fervent hope that what we meet there is not the end, but the beginning of a new journey: the greatest of adventures, and the truest unknown.
Neither death, nor life … shall be able to separate us from the love of God.Romans 8:38–39
Until then, we walk alongside: with those who are dying, with those who keep watch beside them, and with those left behind, for as long as the road takes.
Funerals and remembrance
Funeral rites, commendation and committal
The Church's rites for the dead, with or without a Requiem Mass.
Memorials and ashes
A memorial or Requiem at a later date, and prayers at the laying to rest or scattering of ashes.
For a funeral, this matters most of all. We can only speak well of someone we have come to know through the people who loved them, so we will spend as long with you as you need. We work directly with your funeral director.
Blessing
Some sixteen hundred years ago, one of the early Fathers of the Church wrote of the priest's part in the gifts of God:
The gifts which God bestows are not such as to be effects of the virtue of the Priest. All is of grace.St John Chrysostom
To ask a blessing upon oneself, a loved one, a cherished thing or a home is an ancient practice, common to many faiths. It is by grace that this rite is performed, in the spirit of love and of holiness.
Blessings
Homes
A blessing for a new home, or for a home after a difficult time.
Animals and treasured things
For the companions and objects that matter to you.
New beginnings
A new job, a recovery, a journey: whatever you would like marked with a prayer.
Ceremonies in your own words, for every journey.
Love
Love one another, but make not a bond of love: let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.Kahlil Gibran
Weddings and commitment
A ceremony in your own words
Your story, readings, the vows you write, and no religious content unless you ask for it.
Commitment ceremony
For couples who want to mark their commitment without a legal marriage.
Renewal of vows
Marking an anniversary or a new beginning.
Getting to know you. The heart of any rite is the time we spend together beforehand. The more we talk about you, your family and what matters to you, the more truly it will speak for you, so we will make as much time for that as you can give.
New life
Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.Kahlil Gibran
Namings
A naming ceremony
The giving of the name and promises from parents and guide parents.
Death
Many times man lives and dies
Between his two eternities.W. B. Yeats
Nothing quite prepares us for the loss of someone we love.
When a life reaches its closing chapter, we call it terminal. The word comes from the Latin terminus, a boundary, and further back from an ancient root, ter: a post or peg set in the ground to mark where one place ends and another begins. A boundary is not an ending.
In the grip of grief it is easy to fall into despair, and that is only human. Having no religion is not the same as having no spirit, and whatever we each believe, when we find a moment of repose in the hardest days, many of us share the same quiet hope: that what we meet there is not simply an end, but the beginning of a new journey. Seen in that light, death may be the greatest of adventures, and the truest unknown.
Until then, we walk alongside: with those who are dying, with those who keep watch beside them, and with those left behind, for as long as the road takes.
Funerals and remembrance
A celebration of life
The story of who they were, the readings and music they loved, and a dignified farewell.
Memorials and ashes
A memorial at a later date, and the laying to rest or scattering of ashes.
For a funeral, this matters most of all. We can only speak well of someone we have come to know through the people who loved them, so we will spend as long with you as you need. We work directly with your funeral director.
All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.Julian of Norwich
For every ceremony
Pastoral care
Before, during and after
I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.Matthew 25:36
Pastoral care is part of every rite, and it does not end when the rite does. It includes a confidential, listening ear for whatever you are carrying, especially the things that are hard to speak about, and visits at home, in hospital or in a hospice. After a funeral, we keep in touch for as long as you need. It is never charged for.
Words for the day
Readings, vows and tributes
When thoughts are racing faster than you can catch them, we can help with the words: bespoke readings, vows for commitment or marriage, and eulogies and tributes, written with you until they sound like you.