Congratulations on the birth of your child! It may be that this is not the case as anyone at any age can seek to be christened. However, when a new life enters our world we often feel like we want a proper way to mark it, and a christening is the way that our ancestors have done this in our churches, our community buildings. Anyone can get in touch with us to find out about a christening, parents don’t even have to have been christened themselves, although Godparents do and should have made an adult affirmation of their Christian faith.
If you’ve just had a child, he or she is precious to you, but they are also precious to God! You will want the very best for them, so will God. Therefore, you will want them to make the right choices in life, for themselves and for others. A christening is not only a great way to mark the beginning of someone’s life, it is a start of a shared journey with your child and your most-trusted Christian friends, where you:
- Are there for your child to talk about the bigger questions of life
- Pray for your child through the ups and downs of their life and faith journey
- Show them practically how to make good choices in life
- Help them to learn more about their Christian faith
This is why being a Godparent a such a commitment and one where you will give a lot of thought. It is also why a Godparent needs to be a Christian, where they have already asked these bigger questions for themselves and are used to praying, so that they are in a good position to help your child when they turn to their Godparents. If you know of someone who would be a great Godparent but they are not yet baptised themselves, then we would be very happy to guide them so that they can be baptised and then become a Godparent to your child. Every child should have at least three Godparents, two of the same gender and one of the opposite gender to your child, and parents may be Godparents too. However, these numbers are not fixed in law so please do speak to us if you have any questions about this.
Thanksgiving Service:
An alternative to Christenings
If finding Godparents or the idea of starting your child on this journey of faith seems too much then you can still have a special service, called a Thanksgiving service where you can simply mark the arrival of your child with your family and friends and say thank you to God for the gift of their life. You might even choose this service if you have just adopted a child into your family. In either case, this does not prevent your child from being baptised in the future.
Confirmation
If you are already old enough to make the decision to follow God as shown in Jesus for yourself then please speak to us and we can advise whether you might want Godparents, alternatives called Sponsors or neither. It might be that you would also consider being confirmed, which is a special service where the Bishop will anoint you and pray for you.
It might be that you wish to explore Christianity further. You can do this with a view to being christened and/or confirmed following this, but you do not have to commit yourself to this in order to explore your faith.
If you would be interested in exploring your faith or having your child christened then please contact us and complete the form below.