On Epiphany Sunday, we were delighted to welcome the Bishop of Wakefield to St Mary’s to lead our Baptism and Confirmation service.

Four candidates were being confirmed, and one of those was also being Baptised. It was great to welcome them and their sponsors this morning.

The service started off with the Bishop welcoming everybody to the service and reminding us that Epiphany is a traditional time for Confirmation with the focus of journeys. The Bishop preached on this similarity as well.

The first part of the service was Gareth’s Baptism. This was incorporated with the Bishop reminding us all of our Baptisms, and doing this practically by liberally sprinkling the Baptism water over the congregation! However, it is fair to say that Gareth received his fair share of the water as well – it was dripping off him for most of the service.

Then we moved onto the confirmation part of the service. It was nice to hear from all the candidates why they have chosen to be confirmed, and then they made promises to confirm their Baptism promises.

The Bishop then celebrated the Eucharist, and the newly confirmed, and their sponsors and family were the first to receive communion this morning.

After the communion, the newly confirmed received their candles which they will keep. After the Blessing at the end of the service, the Bishop led the newly confirmed up the aisle to the back of church.

After the service, the congregation shared a faith lunch, which traditionally at St Mary’s are always well supported! Overall this was a terrific way for the church family of St Mary’s to start 2013 and move us forward into the new year, a lot of people were heard to say how much they’d enjoyed the service and that having the lunch in church rather than going round to the Parish Centre was really nice.

Below, pictured around the font at the end of the service is, left to right: Rev Amanda Barraclough (Vicar of St Mary’s), Paul Martin, Hannah Tombling, Bishop of Wakefield, Gareth Twohey, Laura Wiesiolek.