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WHEN a young mum went to see her vicar about having her baby baptised, she never imagined it would be the catalyst for her to re-discover faith.

Hilary Betts from Whitehill had never been a regular churchgoer, but when Amelia was born, she had a deep desire to have her baptised.

But she didn’t just want to get her baptised for the sake of it. She wanted it to be the first step in her journey of faith.

“I was baptised as a child and raised to understand the importance of church and I wanted my daughter to have that too,” said 39-year-old Hilary. “For me it would have been hypocritical to have her baptised for the sake of it. It is not just an excuse for a party – a baptism is an introduction to the Christian faith.”

That was six years ago and Hilary, a business analyst, is now a regular worshipper at St Matthew’s Church, Blackmoor.

She was confirmed at St Peter’s Church, Petersfield, last December and recently completed a 12-week Alpha course. She also helps with Sunday School at St Matthew’s and school holiday workshops for young people in the community.

“If you had told me six years ago that I would be involved in all of this, I wouldn’t have believed you,” she said. “Back then, before we had children, socialising and work were the main priorities in my life, but I now couldn’t imagine my life without church. It just wouldn’t be complete.”

Hilary was raised in a Christian family. Her parents worshipped at St Mark’s Church in Bordon and she and her older brother, Duncan, attended the Sunday School there. She attended St Matthew’s C of E Primary School and was taught

to appreciate the importance of church.

But as she got older, life became busier and the family stopped attending church regularly.

“I don’t remember there being a conscious decision to stop going but weekends just became busier and we stopped going as a family,” Hilary said. “We still went at Christmas and Easter, but we just didn’t go every week.”

After college, Hilary left home to study economics at university in Liverpool and met a student

whose mum was a vicar.“I used to talk to her a little bit

about religion but I never joined any of the societies for Christians,” Hilary said. “I realised then that there was still something there but I wasn’t going to commit to

anything more than going to church at Easter and Christmas.”

She met her husband, Matthew, at university. After graduating they got engaged and he moved from his home city of Norwich to Whitehill and in 1998 they were married in St Matthew’s Church.

“I was adamant when I married Matthew that I wanted to get married in a church,” she said. “To me marriage was something that took place in a church – it was not a civil ceremony.

“We went to church to hear our banns called and then we went for a few weeks afterwards but we didn’t continue after that.

“Then after our first child was born, I wanted her to be baptised. It wasn’t just because I thought it was the ‘thing to do’, I really wanted her to grow up understanding the importance of church as I did.

“I went to see Will Hughes, who was the vicar here then, and he had a young family and the church just seemed a very family-friendly environment and I felt this overwhelming sense of welcome.

“As a child, churches always seemed to be traditional staid buildings and it seems awful to say it, but not really very family-friendly places. But the welcome we received as a family from all of the parishioners at St Matthew’s was just fantastic. I just felt at home straight away and I have been attending regularly ever since.

“I started helping with junior church and when my son, Edward, now 2, was born he was baptised too.”

Most Sundays, it is just Hilary and Amelia that attend church.

“Amelia goes to junior church but when that isn’t on she enjoys sitting in the service with me. During the week, she’s always asking me if we’re going to church at the

weekend. She likes to be there,” Hilary said.

“Matthew usually stays at home with Edward because he is too young for junior church at the moment, but when he gets older I would like him to go down the same path as Amelia but it will be his choice to make. I am not going to force him.”

The family attend the monthly ‘Sunday Connect’ service together, which is an informal style of worship. It’s led by a worship band with guitars, drums, keyboards and wind instruments. It begins at 11am with coffee. Each month has a theme, which is explored with the help of a Bible verse. There’s also an activity for children and a time for prayer.

Amelia is a pupil at St Matthew’s School and Hilary is a governor there.

“She loves it there and I am really pleased. Our vicar, Dom

Clarke goes in regularly to lead collective worship and Amelia loves to see him. She’s always asking me challenging questions and whenever she does, I ask her to save up her questions for when she next sees Dom!”

Last year, the school and church joined forces for a confirmation course and Hilary was one of the candidates. She was confirmed alongside six Year Six pupils and a teaching assistant.

“It was a very special day. I don’t think I realised how much of an important day it would be. It was a lovely service and I just felt very contented and at peace afterwards,” she said.

In February, Hilary joined an Alpha Course run by St Matthew’s with Kings Church in Bordon. Each week there was a different theme to explore. There were around 20 participants. Each session began with a shared meal.

“After the meal, which was lovely, we had a guest speaker who spoke for about 30 minutes on the theme for that week,” Hilary said.

“There was then a time of open discussion. Our group was quite good. There was a good mix of people, some who were very unsure about the faith and some who had a very strong faith.

“One of the best things about it for me was the informal nature of it. There was a very open atmosphere. It was a very open discussion. There were lots of challenging questions and we were always told that there were no right or wrong answers.

“To me, faith is not something that I would readily talk about. It’s like politics, it’s just not discussed. I don’t share my faith with people at work or even talk about it at church. It’s something that is very personal to me. But at Alpha I felt that I could actually talk about my faith openly. From the very first meeting, I felt very contented and at peace with myself.”

Hilary feels that discovering her faith has transformed her life.

“If I have a problem, I know I have someone I can talk to about it and I know that I have somewhere I can go to just think quietly. I now rationalise things much more and I feel calmer as a person as a result. I couldn’t imagine my life now without God in it.”

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Baptism awakens mum’s latent faith