One of the great privileges of being in parish ministry in the Church of England is that we get to officiate at the so-called Occasional Offices - baptisms, weddings and funerals. While these services are less frequent within the Church of England than they once were (making them 'occasional' indeed!), they are in fact named for the significant occasions that they mark. That is what makes them such a privilege to be part of. Whether sorrowful or joyful, these ceremonies are ways of marking some of the most significant waypoints on the journey of life. As officiating ministers, although we are often playing host to large congregations of friends and family at these services, there is often for me also a feeling of being invited in as a guest to these intimate and tender moments. Or perhaps a truer metaphor would be that we are invited - briefly - to be companions on the road, sharing stories of the path that lies behind and hopes for the road ahead. 

This is particularly noticeable at the moment, during the busy season for weddings. Because of our unique position in the centre of Oxford, many of the couples who come to our church to get married are eligible to do so through having been students at one of the colleges in our parish. For them, returning to Oxford for their wedding is about more than the picturesque views. It can be about marking this waypoint in a place that was especially meaningful for one or both of the couple. I particularly enjoy asking couples to tell me the story of their relationship in our marriage preparation sessions. This question is often an occasion for laughter, and not infrequently for tears - signs of a good traveller's tale. And I think it is the accumulation of such stories which makes the University Church and Oxford such a meaningful place to mark births, marriages, and deaths. At times the church can feel almost crowded with the overlaying of lives and stories, contemporary and historical.

Of course, the Occasional Offices are about more than merely marking these transitions and journeys on a human level, important though that is. By marking these moments in a church, those involved express their commitment to the idea that these times have meaning and significance beyond the compass of the human lives they mark. They are a way of claiming these precious times for God. They are a way of expressing to those involved that they are held and loved by God through the major transitions that they mark. And they are a way of building up the community of Christ's pilgrim people, as the Church provides fellow travellers on the road.