The celebration of baptism
At St Mary’s and St Peter’s we love to welcome people into the church family through the celebration of baptism (sometimes called Christening). Whether you are an adult or older child wishing to take the next step on your 'journey of faith', or a parent wishing to publicly give thanks and celebrate the arrival of a new child we would love to meet you and explore with you what’s involved.
As a first step, please contact Jenny or Kathryn in the Parish Office to arrange a visit with one of our clergy. If you don’t actually live within the Parish, we can help connect you with your local church, or ask the vicar there if it’s OK for your child to be baptised at St Mary’s or St Peter’s.
We appreciate that you will want to invite your family and friends and perhaps also book a venue for a celebration afterwards. We would strongly advise you not to do this until we have agreed a date with you. Baptisms at St Mary’s are very popular, and we can’t always accommodate first choice dates. We usually arrange a date once we have started exploring baptism with you.
So some helpful next steps would be:
- Come along on a Sunday to our one of our services. Both congregations love to welcome new families. 9.30am is a more traditional service with hymns played on an organ, and 11.15am is a more informal service with songs led by a music group. The later service also has groups for children.
- Look at https://www.churchofengland.org/life-events/christenings which gives you more details about baptism in the Church of England. There’s useful information here about who to choose as godparents, what happens in the baptism service, and how to follow up the promises you make in the service in practical ways.
- But we want to help you with all that personally, so will make some time to go through the practical arrangements in advance, explore what’s in the service and what it means, as well as consider the ways we can support you afterwards. On occasions, some parents would prefer not to make promises they aren’t sure they mean but would still like to thank God for their new child. The preparation we do with you will make clear what’s right and we’ll be pleased to support what you choose to do.
So please do get in touch – we look forward to meeting you.
For your information:
- Baptisms and thanksgivings can be held during the 9.30am Holy Communion Service, or alternatively at the 'Live at St Marys' service at 11.15am.
- The wider Church of England has guidelines and requirements concerning the choice of God-parents. Further information can be found here: https://www.churchofengland.org/life-events/christenings/guide-godparents
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