Flourish Baptisms and Confirmations

Flourish Coordinator, Sue Pocock has been talking to Cath Speed, Head Teacher at St Chads School, about the baptisms of two members of the Flourish new worshipping community in Winsford.

Cath says:

"When we first discussed being part of the Flourish Pilot, we had thought that in the long term we would like to offer a Baptism and Confirmation service as part of our worshipping community. After the first few services, one of our young leaders and his mum came to speak Rev Callum and myself as headteacher.

"They had been completing an application form for the local church high school and one of the questions had asked about baptism. Our Year 6 pupil learnt he wasn’t baptized and wanted to know what it meant. We explained the commitment to him and he asked if he could be baptized. This young man has wonderful and deeply thoughtful ideas in our planning sessions. We agreed to arrange a service. This led to other children asking about the commitment and the young man’s mum and brother also wanted to be baptized.

"It was our delight on June 11th to organize a joint church and Flourish Baptism and Confirmation service with Bishop Mark. Although the service, by nature, needed to be more formal than our usual worship, the young leaders were still keen to take leadership roles. They chose the worship music, wrote and led prayers of intercession, read the Bible passages and helped with the communion section of the worship. One Year 6 pupil even acted as the Bishop’s chaplain.

"The service was beautiful and very moving. Children, parents, grandparents, the Flourish community and the local church all joined together for this very special time of worship."

Flourish Coordinator, Sue Pocock is based in the Outreach department at Church House