These services and ceremonies do not have any legal status and are simply
something that you, as family, choose to do as a gesture of love.
A Naming Ceremony is a very special way of celebrating your child’s birth and welcoming
a new arrival into the family.
The ceremony usually has five essential sections: Introduction and Welcome, a Reading
or Poem, Naming of the Child/Children, Parent’s Promises, and Closing Words.
You could also have reasons for choosing the names, hopes for the future or further
readings, poems or music.
It acts as an opportunity to declare, before family and friends, your promise
to be good parents. For example, the following vow could be taken, “We promise
to keep (child) and clothe him/her, shelter and protect him/her, love and support
him/her for as long as he/she needs us as best we can. We promise to offer (child)
a good example so that he/she learns right from wrong, and truth from dishonesty”.
A Welcoming Ceremony is a way of acknowledging a precious new life as an individual,
asking the intimate members of the child’s family to offer vows of deep commitment
and love to the child, and inviting the wider community - whether it be extended family
or friends - to also make vows of commitment to the child. The parents, sometimes
“godparents”, and siblings too, are invited to dedicate themselves to the child’s
“physical, ethical and spiritual development”. As an example, after the parents and
“godparents” have taken a vow, all those present can act as a community and promise
“to raise and teach this child by our example and to love and cherish him/her to the
utmost limits of our ability”. In this ceremony we can also give the child their name
as a symbol of uniqueness.
As you can see, in both of these ceremonies, there is plenty of scope for making
your child’s special day a very personal and unique event.
A renewal of wedding vows ceremony can be a meaningful, touching revivifying ceremony for
you and your children, family and friends to pause and reflect where you have been and
where you are going. I have conducted vow renewals for couples married as little as 10
years and as much as 50 years.
Some couples choose to renew their vows after a particularly difficult crisis in their
lives, say for example, the overcoming of a serious illness or a period of estrangement.
They want to make their marriage new again Others simply want to reaffirm the tremendous
love that has matured and deepened with the passing years.
Vow renewal ceremonies can be as creative and personal as you want them to be.
Walk down the aisle to classical music or walk out to “your song”.
Buy new wedding bands for the occasion and have them specially engraved.
Use your original wedding vows in the ceremony or pick one of the pre-written
ceremonies that I have designed. Let the cover of your invitation feature your
grandchildren’s favorite drawing of Grandma and Grandpa or even your first wedding portrait.
There are so many options that can be used for your renewal ceremony. Can you imagine
the beautiful scene of your children watching you joining hands and hearts to reaffirm
the magnitude and strength of your enduring love? “True love does not wither or die.
It merely ripens.”
We all know there is nothing so difficult as going through the death of a loved one.
And in your time of bereavement it can be very hard to make the decisions that are
asked of you and your family. I can assist you by guiding you through the aspects
of the service as well as composing a touching memorial that commemorates the life
that has been lived and offer family and friends the opportunity to pay tribute to
your loved one.
Barbara Holmstrom
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