Members of Durham Clergy discuss the CofE wedding Project and their own wedding practice.
Gillian Oliver talks about the 7 stages of pastoral involvement from the CofE wedding project.
Even though couples have more choices of wedding venue than ever before, 22% still choose a traditional church wedding. Over the past few years, the Church of England’s Weddings Project has been trying to ensure that clergy up and down the country provide the best possible experience. The result discussed at the workshop outlined to participants how they can seeks to ensure that churches are as welcoming as possible on the big day.
Stephen Cherry said: “this day had been all about clergy learning more about what couples want from their wedding day. The input is based on real research which shows just how seriously people are when they come to get married in church. The message to the clergy is to reach out to this with warmth and generosity and to help people to have weddings that are both traditional and up to date, both the same as everyone else’s and very special and personal to them.”
Gillian said: “Many people who aren’t churchgoers don’t realise that they can have a church wedding, and we’re trying to correct that by stressing we’re open to everyone. The whole point about the wedding project was to exam what couple wanted from their wedding day and what they most valued in the seven stages of pastoral involvement that the church has with the couple.”
Stephen said: “Like most areas of professional life, developmental training and continuous updates to best practice are common place. For clergy this is called continuing ministerial development. This session was one of the many opportunities that are available to clergy in the Diocese to assist in the development of their ministerial practice.”