Weddings
Choose Any One of our Twelve Churches for YOUR special day!
Congratulations if you have just got engaged and are thinking about getting married in one of the Binsey Mission Community’s 12 churches – you have come to the right place! You may even have begun making plans about your wedding day and we would like to help you make your day special.
We are delighted to be able to conduct weddings again, and most of the restrictions have now been eased, but face-masks are still required to be worn in church, when arriving and leaving, and can only be removed once seated.
If you currently live anywhere within the Binsey Mission Community area, then you can get married in our churches. If you live elsewhere, but have a family connection to a church, or want to come and worship regularly in our churches, then we’d love to help you.
We would like to welcome you and help you make your life-long marriage vows in our holy places set aside to worship God. You are very welcome to join us in any of our Sunday services and to look around the particular church you have chosen to make your wedding promises in and meet our friendly congregations.
Please contact our Team Rector, Revd Stephen Banks (016973 71541) in the first instance for a friendly chat and he will be able to talk you through what is possible. He will also explain to you the arrangements for getting married in the Church of England and how we help each couple prepare for their wedding day. An essential part of this is the Marriage Preparation Day, which all couples attend at the beginning of the year.
In addition to attending Marriage Preparation, then the clergy from the Binsey Team will also meet with each couple on two occasions prior to the rehearsal and your wedding day. Most of you will get married through the process of reading Banns of Marriage and you will also be invited to attend the Sunday service on each of those three occasions.
We would love to welcome you into our church and help you make your life-long commitment to each other before God. Please note that several of our churches are small, so not able to accommodate more than 50-60 guests, and St James, Uldale is not currently available because of major restoration work.
If you go to www.yourchurchwedding.org you’ll find an external website which explains all you need to know about weddings in the Church of England. It will guide you through the kind of service you can have and how special a church wedding can be.
You can marry in one of our Churches if you can show:-
That one of you:
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Lives in the parish or has done, at any time for a period of at least 6 months or
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was baptised in the parish or
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was prepared for confirmation in the parish or
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has at any time regularly (fortnightly) gone to normal church services in one of our parish churches for a period of at least 6 months or
That one of your parents, at any time after you were born:
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has lived in the parish for a period of at least 6 months or
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has regularly (fortnightly) gone to normal church services in the parish for a period of at least 6 months or
That one of your parents or grandparents:
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was married in the parish
In all cases involving church services – i.e. going to normal church services, baptism, confirmation or marriage – this applies only to Church of England services. If you cannot demonstrate any of the above connections, then it may still be possible for you to get married in the parish, provided you are able to attend Sunday worship in Binsey on a regular basis.