We’d like to offer you the choice of two services, both of which celebrate the life of your child: Baptism (also called ‘Christening’)… & Thanksgiving.
Baptism Service
At this service, you the parent(s), along with Godparents, say:
- that you are real Christians – those who love Jesus Christ
- that you are members of his church
- that you obey his teaching in life (eg you are married, or plan to marry if you are living together).
Having said this about yourselves, you then promise to bring up your child in this faith by teaching him/her from the bible, and by praying together with your child, and by bringing him/her with you as you come to church. So the service of Baptism is for parents who are Christians and who show that in the way they live/go to church.
If you wish to have your child baptised but you are not yet a Christian, then obviously we need to spend time with you introducing you to Christianity.
We will invite you to come to our “Christianity Explained” course – which is run either with a group of people in someone’s house, or with individuals in the comfort of their own home.
Attending this course does not guarantee baptism.
It simply gives you the information you need to decide whether or not to become a Christian.
A decision about whether to proceed to a Baptism Service or not can be made after the course.
We appreciate however that you might not yet feel ready to take this step, and so we offer the service of Thanksgiving as an alternative.
Thanksgiving Service
Whilst we are happy for you to join our church, we realise that not everyone is ready for this level of commitment. That is why the Thanksgiving Service has been designed for anyone who would like to have their child welcomed into our church, and who would like to mark their child’s birth by giving thanks to God for such a wonderful gift.
The Thanksgiving Service does not require you to make any commitments.
It’s simple aims are:
- to thank God for his goodness in giving you a child
- to formally declare the name of your child
- to pray to God, asking his blessing on your child’s life
All these things are good things to do and we would be happy to conduct this service for you.
It must be clearly understood however that this form of service in no way replaces or carries the significance of Baptism. No water will be used, no promises made, so no Godparents will be involved.
But the option of Baptism will always remain available, so that children will be able to decide later when they are old enough to make up their own minds.
Please think about the two options and us our Contact us form to send us an email.
Once we have received your email, someone from our church will visit you to talk about it, and to work out what will be the next step to take this further.
There is no fee for either of these services.