Baptisms & Weddings

At St. Peter’s Church we value the opportunity to share in special occasions and services of Thanksgiving, Baptism (Christening) and Marriage are an important part of our life as a local church. We try very hard to give you a holy, happy and memorable experience at St. Peter’s Church.

Please find some guidance below on the particular services you might be considering. To make specific arrangements please contact the Church Administrator on 0115 8780579 or ruddoffice@googlemail.com

Thanksgiving

You may wish to consider having a service of Thanksgiving for the Gift of a Child. In this service, you thank God for the gift of your child and the child is blessed. You do not make the same promises as in the Baptism service.

If you choose to have a Thanksgiving, you may also have a Baptism service for your child at a later date. A Thanksgiving can take place at any service and on any date (with the agreement of the Vicar).

Infant or Child Baptism

In baptism, you as parents are: thanking God for His gift of life, making a decision to start your child on the journey of faith and asking for the Church’s support.

For your child, baptism marks the start of a journey of faith, which involves turning away from all that is evil, turning towards Christ and becoming a member of the local and worldwide Christian family.

Baptism is a ‘sacrament’ a visible sign of God’s love. In baptism, we are thanking God for his gift of life and publicly acknowledging his love. We are acknowledging that we all need to turn away from selfishness and evil and to accept God’s offer of a new start.

We prefer to welcome people into the church in baptism at one of our services of morning worship. It is normal for parents to be taken through the promises they are making and implications of baptism at a preparation session before the baptism service.

Adult Baptism

It is most common for adults wishing to be baptised to come to that point through the ministry of the St Peter’s. Again such baptisms would normally take place during a Sunday morning service. Candidates would be expected to undertake some preparation for promises they would be making in the baptism service.

Wedding

To assist in planning your service and to answer some of the most asked questions we would recommend the Church of England’s new website www.yourchurchwedding.org

The website contains lots of the legal information that couples often need and gives lots of good advice for those contemplating a lifelong marriage together.

To be married at St. Peter’s Church you will need to satisfy one of the following criteria:

(1) reside within the Parish of Ruddington

(2) member of the Church

(3) strong link with the Parish of Ruddington (eg. parents or grandparents living or married at Ruddington).

If you need more information please contact the Church Administrator.