St Mark's United Church

We offer a welcome to everyone

CELEBRATING RELATIONSHIPS

 

St Mark's and the worship space at The Forum are both places licensed for Christian Weddings. We have slightly different rules (set by law) from the Church of England as to who may be married in the church. Heterosexual couples who live in the London Borough of Greenwich and those who are a part of the life of the church (even if they live outside the borough) may ask to get married in our buildings. If you make a request to get married we will encourage you to come along to our worship for a while. This enables you to get to know us and what we stand for and the church members to meet those who will be celebrating in our buildings.

Civil Partnerships
Recent changes in legislation have made it possible for same sex couples to register a Civil Partnership. At the time of signing the partnership no religious ceremony is allowed. Equally, unlike marriage, the church may not register the civil partnership. (there are proposals for the law to allow the church to register partnerships and we hope to take advantage of this when it happens) The Church Meeting of Greenwich United Church acting as a part of the United Reformed Church has agreed that blessing civil partnerships may be conducted by the minister. Again we would encourage a couple planning to celebrate a partnership to come along to our worship.

Fees
Fees are payable for a special service whether it is a wedding or a civil partnership. The fees are set to reflect the cost of using the building (including the people who open up, clean etc) and to make a contribution to the funds of the church. The secretary will discuss the fees payable and the deposit required when you meet with her.

We know that Jesus never turned anyone away and so neither should we. That’s why we are supporting the equalisation of marriage. Our Church Meeting recently re-affirmed our support of equality for our gay and lesbian friends.

If you have feared that you would not be welcome in church because of who you are or because you have a questioning faith why not give us a try.

The United Reformed Church (and we are URC Methodist) has recognised that this is a decision of the local church. Our Church meeting has confirmed that same sex marriage is welcome at St Mark's

We think that each congregation should make its own decision and because we believe this we recognise that although we would disagree with our friends in other churches they should not be asked to act outside their conscience. What we do ask is that in this matter as with many others we are not prevented by their decisions from seeking to follow our conscience and calling by God to be a welcoming and inclusive church.

There is welcome here for you. Woman or man, young or old