| Lifestages | 01: Baptism & Christening |
| Sunday Worship | 02: Holy Communion 03: Congregational Singing 04: Local Arrangements |
| Yearly | 03: Easter |
01: Baptism, Christening & Alternatives
UPDATED JANUARY 2022
Within the Methodist Church we offer services of Baptism (sometimes called Christening) for babies, children, and adults. Baptism is a ceremony during which water is prayerfully sprinkled onto a child or adult’s forehead and they are welcomed into a lifelong relationship with God’s world-wide family, the Church.
Our minister John will be delighted to have a conversation with you about what Baptism involves and whether it is right for you and your family. The marital status of the parents is not a factor in the Churches decision to Baptise anyone.
Infant Baptism
The birth of a child is a special occasion, it calls for a celebration, and many people want to find a way of giving thanks to God for the arrival of the child, as well as having the opportunity to publicly declare that the child is a part of the wider family of God.
Here at Hedge End Methodist Church, we welcome all children as part of our church family and a service of Baptism would normally take place in our 10:30am morning service. Our minister John will be very happy to talk to you about what the service entails, which Sundays are available and answer any questions you may have.
Child Baptism
The main difference between an Infant and Child Baptism is that in the service of Infant Baptism the parent(s) make promises on behalf of the baby, whereas in a Child Baptism the child being Baptised is invited to make a promise in addition to those made by the parent(s). Once again all of this can be talked over with John.
Adult Baptism
This is sometimes known as a Believers Baptism. This is available for people who haven’t been Baptised as an infant or child and who want to make a commitment to following the way of Jesus within the life of the Church.
Within the Methodist Church those who seek Adult Baptism are usually welcomed as church members in the same service. And yes, John can give you more information about this.
Service of Thanksgiving
You may feel that an Infant or Child Baptism Service isn’t for you or your family, but that you still want to celebrate the arrival of your child.
The Service of Thanksgiving is for those who want to have the opportunity to give thanks for the arrival of their child, but don’t feel at this moment that other parts of the Baptism service are for them.
Water is not prayerfully used during a Service of Thanksgiving and the promises made by parents and godparents are different to those they would make during a Baptism Service. Our minister John will be very happy to discuss the differences between Services with you.
Some more information
Our minister John is not at Hedge End Methodist Church every week so please don’t set your heart on a particular date for a Baptism until he has checked his and the Churches availability.
Baptisms nearly always take place during a Sunday morning service. This is at 10.30am and lasts for about an hour. This could possibly be varied depending upon your family circumstances – so please ask!
A baptism is free! (Although you will be invited to make a free will offering as part of the service).
You will be given a certificate and a candle for your child to remind you of the special day.
Parents and godparents are invited to make promises as a response to God’s love for your child during the Service.
Once you have contacted us about a Baptism (please use the “Contact Us” form above to do so) our minister John will contact you to arrange a meeting to talk things through with you.
We look forward to hearing from you!
03: Congregational Singing
UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2021
It is a long time tradition that methodist congregations are known for their singing. Nowadays different congregations vary in style of implementation and for different circumstances. The methodists at Hedge End use a number of different resources at different times and appreciate variety, however they tend to be on the more traditional spectrum of taste as far as singing material is concerned.
Editors Opinion: Many modern hymns rely on the quality of the singer to project and embellish the melody; most of the more traditional hymns that have become standard are in your face easy singables with obvious metre and stonkingly good tunes.
The methodist publishing house has published a number of specific hymn books over the years. The currently used text at Hedge End is called “Singing the Faith”. This is one blunderbuss of a brick, specifically designed to fall off of pianos during performance thereof. It comes in several tomes, ranging from unwieldy to fork lift. Numerous copies are available to use. Fortunately during chapel worship projection screens are used to display the text of hymns for those with/without their reading/driving glasses and are windowed in Zoom Worship.
During a standard Sunday chapel worship it is usual for five hymns to be performed Congregationally. And yes, those who go to church actually like singing. Its rare in this modern world for people nowadays to do anything together apart from shop. There is a feeling of togetherness in the process. And boy oh boy, did some of the writers of these hymns know what they were doing! Congregrational singing can range from dreary to sublime, and sometimes sublime plus!
Nobody expects anybody to sing. Sometimes its good just to listen to the words. And nobody expects you to live up to the expectations of some of the hymnal writers when you sing the words. I would just like to be aspirational enough to have the faith and holiness to live up to them. And that is a good enough reason to sing.
There has been a history of Organ playing at Hedge End carried on by our long time organist. Other instruments are used too. There is a digital piano, and a drum kit. There is occasional a brass band, and occasionally the choir reforms for presentations. Many people are encouraged (but never forced) to play. Sometimes Zoom Worship has used pre-recorded material . Hedge End is not really a Pop Concert type of church and is not really going in the direction which many other churches have chosen to tread.
Editors Opinion: I’m a big fan of Rock, Classical, Jazz, the lot (and so is our organist), but the Pop Concert worship model is too much performance and not enough participation for my taste. It just seems so shallow.
In terms of material the works of Charles Wesley still reign supreme (and so they should).
04: Local Arrangements
UPDATED OCTOBER 2020
A local arrangement is a funny name for community Sunday Morning Worship where people from the local fellowship arrange the worship themselves. Modern Traditional dictates a Methodist local preacher, a paid member of Methodist society, or a preacher or vicar or such like from another denomination is subcontracted in to the fellowship, with the responsibility of arranging the worship. Things are becoming increasingly blurred particularly since Lockdown.
Local arrangements are good for the confidence of the fellowship and are more able to focus on local issues. Often this may be for instance, the activities of a house group. We have only about four of these arrangements a year, but we would like a lot more, as it makes worship, thanksgiving and dedications more relevant to those taking part. That’s not to say of course, that we discourage others; we find variety of worship, helps to include everyone’s preferences. The Methodist tradition is fortunate in its promotion of variety, witness and skills in community practice. We are now in mood to re-evaluate many of the things we traditionally do
Hedge End Methodist Church 