Membership at St. Martin’s
Whatever brings you to St. Martin’s, we’ll always be glad to see you and look forward to worshiping with you in the name of Christ!
If you have recently visited St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, we welcome you to continue to worship with us and to participate in other activities and programs. Formal membership is not required. However, here are some next steps to help you move more intentionally into this community of faith.
When you are a new or returning visitor, we would love for you to:
Complete a visitor card or sign our guest book on a Sunday so that we have some initial contact information. We’ll send you one welcome letter or email and some basic information about St. Martin’s.
Pick up a Visitor’s brochure from one of our greeters when you’re here and learn more about our worship, programs, and the many ways we proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
When you are ready to explore formal membership, you may do one or both of the following:
Call or email the Parish Office to make an appointment to meet with one of the clergy or a staff member. There’s no expectation of commitment at this time; we want to get to know you and your spiritual journey – what brings you here, what interests you, what questions you have.
Or complete a newcomer form (hard copy available at the Parish Office) to give us your complete contact information and ensure you receive our weekly E-Messenger about upcoming events and worship. There is also a place on the form to indicate if you would like to formally join either by transferring from another church or through baptism, confirmation or reception. We will help you with all of that!
About membership in the Episcopal Church
St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields is one of 59 congregations in the Episcopal Diocese of Upper South Carolina. The Mission of the Diocese is the mission of all baptized Christians: to teach and to spread the Gospel and its knowledge of salvation to all people, and to make the love of Christ known in the world. We accomplish this through our own actions as individuals, as congregations, and as the Diocese, by feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, caring for the sick, visiting the prisoner, and comforting those in times of trouble.
The Episcopal Church is a Christian denomination, and the American branch of the Anglican Church (the historic Church of England). Anglicanism began in England in the sixteenth century, when King Henry VIII broke ties with the Pope and declared the Catholic Church in England to be independent.
Our mission is to love and serve Christ in all persons, regardless of their race, gender, social background, religious upbringing, or sexual orientation. We rely on the scriptures of the Old and New Testament as well as the Book of Common Prayer, which unites all Episcopal Churches in our shared life of prayer and sacraments.
Full membership in the Episcopal Church begins with the sacrament of Baptism, which may take place either in the Episcopal Church, or at another Christian church where baptism is done in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Baptism does not need to be repeated - it is full initiation once and for all into the whole body of Christ, the Christian church, regardless of the denomination in which a person is baptized.