Christ Church, Epsom Common
with
Christ Church on the Wells

Weddings

Christ Church is a lovely setting for a wedding. We have a beautiful church building, and we like to think we take real care to make a wedding a really special occasion for a couple.

The marriage service says that marriage “is a gift of God… and a means of his grace”. At a wedding we’re celebrating, first and foremost, the love of a couple for each other and their desire to spend the rest of their lives together. But we’re also celebrating God’s love for people and for his world, and we’re saying that strong relationships make the world a better place for us all to live in.

Wedding bells, a resounding organ, a choir if you want one… All this is available. Through all this, though, we give a couple a chance to ask where their love for each other has come from, and to celebrate that love in marriage in the presence of God.

We are very experienced in helping couples to plan their marriage day. We ask couples to come to a one-evening preparation session, run by one of the clergy, with couples from the other two Anglican churches in Epsom. Then a couple sits down one-to-one with the minister who is conducting the service, to talk through further what marriage is and to discuss the details of the service. And then there’s a rehearsal in the week before the wedding.

It’s important, of course, to get the details right. But it’s also important to help couples ask some bigger questions, like: What’s marriage about? How will this change life for us? Where is God in this?

The present rules about marriage in a Church of England church (set by Parliament, not by us!) are quite precise, and you’ll be talked through them when you make an enquiry. To summarise them… People are entitled to be married in Christ Church if they live in the parish or are on the church’s electoral roll (quite different from the civil electoral list which entitles you to vote!) If you don’t live in the parish, and aren’t on our electoral roll, it’s sometimes possible to be married in Christ Church, if you can demonstrate some links with Christ Church. All very confusing, but don’t be put off – it’s always worth ringing us to ask and to discuss the possibilities!

We do offer marriage to couples where there is has been a divorce, but this is at the discretion of the minister, and involves a confidential preliminary discussion between the couple wanting to be married and one of the ministers of the church. If you want to be married at Christ Church, but have been divorced, please do let us know. No judgment at all – it’s just that we’ll need to talk this through a bit with you.

If you’re thinking about a marriage at Christ Church, please contact, in the first instance, our Marriage Clerk, Marion Bathgate, on 01737 352993.

There is also a lot of useful planning and other material on the Church of England's weddings website which you can access by clicking on the graphic below.

Baptisms

Christ Church is pleased to offer baptism to babies, young people and adults. We see it as a real privilege to be involved in people’s lives in this way, at a very important time for them. In common with other Anglican churches, we understand baptism (or christening, as some people call it) as the beginning of a person’s life with God in the church. God knows us and loves us before we are ever aware of him; but baptism is someone’s formal entry into the church – and it’s a cause for celebration and for joy.

Generally we agree to baptise somebody when they live in the parish – but there are circumstances where we baptise people outside the parish, if they have links with Christ Church already, through family or friends. When you make an enquiry, you’ll be advised on this.

Preparation for baptism generally involves coming to a preparation evening, where we will talk about what baptism means, explain what’s involved, and tell you what options are available as to dates and times. We have an active team of baptism visitors, and we allocate one of our visitors to each family which asks for baptism for their child. That visitor offers the occasional visit to the family, especially around the time of a child’s first few baptism anniversaries.

Baptism is an often excellent chance for a whole family to get more involved in the life of the local church, if they’re not already. We leave it to people, of course, to decide their own level of involvement – but we do encourage people to see baptism as an important moment on an exciting and longer journey of faith with God, and with us at Christ Church.

Our hall (right next to the church) is available for hire to baptism families who would like to celebrate there after the service.

If you’ve got an enquiry about baptism, then please contact either Fay Wedlake or Sarah Chorley.