Baptisms
Some words from our Vicar - Gary
I am delighted that you are thinking about baptism either for your child or yourself. Babies, little children, teenagers and adults can be baptised and I welcome the opportunity to talk about it with you. Before you give me a call to talk about it what follows may be of help to you.
Why have your child christened/baptised?
There are all sorts of reasons why people want their children baptised (christened as it’s often called).
What are yours? You might have a sense that it’s the right thing to do; you might want God’s love for your child to be expressed in this particular way; you might recognise a value in the tradition.
I welcome all the children of my parishes to be baptised. I also welcome the opportunity this affords me to teach about Jesus and help parents who want to teach their children about Him and bring them up to love and serve Him. Jesus says to all His followers:
Go into all the world and make disciples, baptising them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.
I want to do as Jesus tells us and make disciples for Him in the way He asks us to. So, it is important to me that I do some preparation with you before we fix a date for the baptism.
What is christening/baptism?
I think the best way to think of it is as enrolment into a programme; a bit like when you enrol your child into a school. It’s not a one-off event but something that marks the beginning of a journey in which the child will learn to be a Christian. When your child is baptised, these words will be said:
Fight valiantly as a disciple of Christ against sin, the world and the devil and remain faithful to Christ to the end of your life.
To be a Christian is to be committed to obeying the Lord Jesus who calls us to repent and believe in Him. Your child will need to learn this for himself and the local church is here to help you. We run Messy Church which is for parents and children up to Y6. I will encourage you to join this and I’ll have more to say about the meaning of baptism in two preparation sessions that I run. Each lasts for an hour and it’s an opportunity for you to ask questions as well as hear what I have to say.
Who is it for?
It’s mainly babies and small children that I baptise but older children and adults can be baptised too – perhaps by full immersion! In the case of older children and adults they themselves have to make the decision to be
baptised and usually confirmation follows on soon afterwards. In these cases, it’s often best to be baptised by the bishop and then confirmed as well there and then.
I can baptise children from outside of my parishes but there has to be a good reason for this and with the agreement of the vicar in whose parish the child lives. Ideally children should be baptised in the parishes where they live and the parents take them to church services there to build up a relationship with their local church.
Who can be a godparent?
To be a godparent, that person must themselves have been baptised, ideally, they should also be a confirmed communicant member of the Church of England. A parent can be a godparent. Most importantly what you need in a godparent is someone who is themselves a dedicated believer in Jesus; someone who will help you raise your child as a Christian and set a good example for your child by being a regular church attender, someone who prays and reads the Bible and who seeks to live out their own life in obedience to Jesus.
When do the services take place?
I will discuss this further with you after you’ve done the preparation sessions. Most of our baptisms take place outside of the main Sunday services. This is simply because I have three churches to run and it is often difficult to come up with times on a Sunday morning that work for everyone.
What to do now
To make an enquiry, and book a meeting with me please use the contact details below:
You can also read a lot more about baptism in the Church of England using this link to the Church of England Website: Christenings | The Church of England