Pastoral
Care
Serving God
Pleased to Help
We are pleased to provide pastoral care for anyone desiring it. Our clergy visit the sick, the elderly, and offer regular worship at home or local retirement homes as well as area hospices and hospitals. We are available to support grieving persons and people facing any of life’s challenges.
For parishioners in hospital: if you are in hospital, remember that you will be witnessing to your faith by your cheerfulness, courtesy, courage, and the very act of saying your prayers. Strive to express your gratitude to those who are caring for you. Make a point of informing the hospital chaplain and the Rector that you are in hospital, so that you can be prayed for and visited. If you (or a family member) are grievously ill, ask that a priest visit you to pray with you, pronounce absolution and anoint you with holy oil. The priest is a personification of the community of the Church, by whose prayers you will be surrounded, and if it be, borne to God.
With permission, we regularly name persons in need of healing in the weekly Prayers of the People. We also have a confidential Prayer Ministry in the Sacristy during our Sunday morning worship services and the team will be pleased to pray with you or for you. If you have a prayer intention, please contact a member of the clergy team.
The Holy Eucharist
“Through the Holy Eucharist the faithful eat and drink the life of Christ.” – St. Augustine
At Grace we celebrate The Holy Eucharist several times each week, following the Book of Alternative Services.
Our main service on Sundays includes music led by our organist and choir.
Our early service on Sundays is more focused, with less music led by our organist.
Our Thursday morning service is a more intimate said service, typically held in the choir chancel.
Weddings
Jesus said:
But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So, they are no longer two, but one flesh. Mark 10.6-8
The Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is celebrated according to the rites in either The Book of Alternative Services or The Book of Common Prayer, to bind two duly qualified persons together in holy marriage one of whom must be a baptized Christian. The Christian sacrament of holy marriage is celebrated with sacred promises, the joining of hands and the giving and receiving of rings, always in the context of a public service of worship. Couples, including those who are not regular members of the church, are asked to attend a series of preparatory meetings to learn about and reflect on the meaning of the vows to be taken.
There is a financial cost incurred when receiving the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. For more information, including availability of the church…
Holy Baptism
‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. John 3.5’
The Sacrament of Holy Baptism marks an individual’s formal entry into the Christian family and the life of the Church. People of all ages may be baptized. Infants are baptised on the strength of their parents’ and godparents’ commitment to raise them in the faith and life of the Church. Your child is precious to you and precious to God. At Baptism you make a decision to start your child on a journey of faith. The church and the godparents support the family and the child in this decision. We invite you to worship with us to decide if Grace Church is a community of faith in which you can learn more about a life with Christ and deepen your faith journey. As a Christian community we can only fulfill our vows to support you or your children’s life in faith if we see you and worship with you and pray with you. To be practising Christians we need to practise together in community.
Baptisms at Grace Church are celebrated as part of the main Sunday service occasionally throughout the year, but especially at Easter, Pentecost, and All Saints’ Tide. Candidates for baptism, or their sponsors, are invited to meet with the Rector to learn about and reflect on the meaning of the promises to be made. Our expectation is that candidates will continue in their involvement with the parish after they have become members of the church through the sacrament of Holy Baptism.
We welcome all inquiries about Holy Baptism. There is no financial cost involved in receiving the Sacrament of Holy Baptism when part of our regular Sunday 10am service.
Funerals
Jesus said….
‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ John 11.25.26
A funeral marks the close of a human life on earth and the beginning of their eternal life with the resurrected Christ. That is the promise of the Easter gospel that when we die to this life we are raised to new life in Christ. The funeral liturgy is the opportunity for friends and family to express their grief, to celebrate and give thanks for the life which has now completed its journey in this world. Through our worship of God, we have opportunity to know joy and hope in the midst of mourning.
We welcome the privilege of helping anyone in grief through funeral services. We can also make referrals for grief counselling.
It is preferred that funerals be celebrated in the church, ideally within the context of a celebration of the Holy Eucharist.
In the funeral liturgy, the soul of the departed is commended to God’s gracious keeping. Prayers and scripture readings assist the departed’s loved ones and friends in understanding the Christian hope for everlasting life in the Risen Christ.
May the souls of the Faithful Departed rest in peace and rise in glory!
Confirmation
Confirmation (the Laying on of Hands by the bishop) is available for those seeking to confess and affirm the faith of their baptism. “Those baptized in the Church are sealed by the Seal of the Lord after the example of the baptized Samaritans who were received by the Apostles Peter and John through the laying-on-of-hands and prayer.” – St. Cyprian
Home Blessings
It is in the home that the first experience of love occurs; it is there that love is nurtured and grows to maturity. The Christian home is also the ground for much of people’s spiritual growth.
The ministry of Jesus occurs in many different homes. Therefore, to hallow the home as an environment for nurture and renewal, is a deeply felt need by many Christian households.
The blessing of a home encourages Christians to dedicate their life at home to God and to others.
When we ask God to bless objects and places; we remember that God is setting them aside for a special, holy purpose, the concept is not one of magic but of holy mystery. God wants to bless God’s people. Often God does so directly. And sometimes God blesses objects and places as well and uses them as a means of blessing us. The blessed object or place points us to God. The following blessings are for all homes whether simple or spacious. So, no matter where you live — house, apartment or student residence – these blessings are for that place. It is also customary to bless the doors of our homes in the new year at Epiphany (6 January). In this annual rite we ask God to bless our homes and all who will enter into our homes in the new year.
If you would like your new home blessed by one of the clergy at Grace Church
Ordination
Ordination (the laying on of Hands by the bishop for deacons, and by the bishop and priests for priests) is the means by which suitably called and trained persons are made deacons, and later priests of the Church. (Vocational Deacons remain deacons.) Bishops are ordained by at least three duly consecrated bishops. “The priesthood is performed on earth but it possesses heavenly things.” – St. John Chrysostom