The month of June sees two rather special services, our Annual Confirmation Service and the Consecration of the Churchyard Extension, just three days apart.

Firstly something about the Confirmation service:

Thursday 18 June at 8.00 pm

This year we have no less than twenty one candidates who will confirm their desire to live their lives in accordance with the teachings and example of Christ.  They come to this service after several months of careful preparation, instruction and discussion to make this commitment to God and to be prayed for by the church.  It is a pivotal and moving moment for each and every one of them in their lives, whether they are young or are doing this as an adult.  Each has come to the decision that now is the right time to confirm the promises made at baptism and, before God and his people, to make a commitment to study scripture, to pray regularly and to gather with other members of God’s church to be nourished in the bread of wine of Christ’s body and blood at the Eucharist.  For too long there has been a perception at St Mary’s that regular members of the congregation are not encouraged or welcome to come to the service.  The opposite is in fact the case.  I strongly encourage all members of St Mary’s to come and play their part in praying for and supporting this wonderful group of people as they make this important step on their journey of discipleship and faith.  Yes, the candidates will invite some family and friends to come and be with them but they need their church family and friends to be there also.  There will be lots of room – quite a number of the candidates are from the same family and so many of guests will supporting several of them – so do come along and join us for this joyful celebration with the Bishop. You are all encouraged to be there.

Then, just three days later, we gather to consecrate the extension to the Churchyard:

Sunday 21 June at 9.30 am

This will be our usual Sunday morning Parish Eucharist but with a twist!  We gather at 9.30 am and our regular groups for younger worshippers will be running – so a Crèche for pre-school children and Junior Church and PALs groups for the older children.  But at the end of the service rather than closing the service in the usual way we will all process out of the church to gather at the western end of the grounds to consecrate the new extension to our churchyard.  The Bishop with his crozier, the Churchwardens with their staves, the Diocesan Registrar – the legal representative for the Bishop of St Albans and his Diocese – in his resplendent finery of gown and wig will all make their way to the four corners of the new extension. The Bishop will mark the sign of the cross with the bottom of his crozier and pray that the land within these four points will be consecrated and made holy for the purpose of burying our dear departed loved ones.  The land becomes a holy place, God’s acre, so that any residents in Redbourn, of any faith or none, can be laid to rest and buried there.  Of course, we have already buried a small number in the extension already – quite properly by a special licence allowing us to do so until such time as the grass had fully established and the land fully prepared so that it could be consecrated. But now this consecration marks the final part in a very long process of gaining this extra land, the legal transactions to record that it becomes part of the existing churchyard and to fence it in and prepare grass and hedging.  I am profoundly moved and deeply grateful to so many people in this village who kindly and generously responded to my letter of appeal asking for financial help to get this extension.  I hope that you will all come and be a part of this great celebration as we give thanks that we continue to have somewhere here in Redbourn to bury our loved ones.

Yours in Christ, Will