It is most likely that your child will be a fairly new-born baby, but there are circumstances when an
older child (or indeed an adult) will be baptized. You may well have spoken to a minister from the church
by the time you read this, but this is to confirm what we offer to families before, at, and after baptism.
First of all, we would offer a service of Thanksgiving for the Birth (or the Adoption) of a Child. This is a short service (5 minutes) of thanks and blessing, usually attended by just the immediate family, which can be fitted into the main Sunday morning service (10.30 am) almost as soon as you would like. We strongly recommend that you come for this, for two reasons: It allows you to express thanks to God for your new child within the church community. And it means that we can offer you something even if you are thinking over and hesitating about the rightness of making the commitments of baptism for your child. Having a service of Thanksgiving in no way prejudices the subsequent decision for or against baptism. We hope you will have your child baptised, but the decision is entirely yours. Please make contact with us as soon as you can to arrange a Thanksgiving.
You may want to book a convenient time for the baptism of your child well ahead, so that godparents, family and friends can be invited. Baptisms also take place in the main Sunday morning service at 10.30 am, and any Sunday is potentially available, if enough notice is given. Please note that the service of All Age Worship, usually on the second Sunday of each month, is particularly appropriate for the inclusion of a baptism. A booking is most conveniently made by contacting the vicar. If you have had a service of Thanksgiving and are still thinking about baptism, there is no harm in leaving the baptism arrangements until you have had time to do this.
To help you with this, we offer a friendly contact through a member of the church. Lorraine West and a small group of baptism visitors are available, and one of them will make contact with you and arrange to meet up at a Sunday service and then perhaps, if you are happy, they will pop round to your house for a chat. The purposes of this are: to get to know you a little, so that there is a friendly face in church; to help you consider something of the implications of baptism, for you and your child; and to provide information about the life of the church, so that you will find it easy to get involved in things.
Whether or not you proceed to a baptism for your child, we very much hope that you will find a place in the community of our church and be able to make some progress in your pilgrimage of faith.
In the week before the Sunday for which the baptism has been arranged, the minister who will be
conducting the service will contact you and arrange to see you, to go through the order of service with
you and with any godparents who might be able to be present. You will need to fill in an application
form, with details about the child, the parents and the godparents, and give it to the minister before
the baptism Sunday. This form will be given to you by the baptism visitor or is available on our
website. There is no fee or any charge in connection with baptism.
You will wish to select a
number of godparents for your child. Traditionally there are two of the same gender as your child and
one of the opposite gender, but fewer or more godparents are quite often chosen. Godparents must
themselves be baptized, and you will obviously want to choose people who can be good friends and a real
Christian influence for your child. Please note that parents can be godparents to their own children,
but it is still usual for there to be at least one other godparent. For adults who want to express or
renew a commitment to Christian faith, baptism and confirmation are available. Just ask for more
information.
At the service of baptism your child will receive a baptismal candle and a certificate of baptism. It may be possible to incorporate a special prayer or a favourite hymn in the service, if we have enough notice.
As you will realise, we are a united church of Methodists and Anglicans, but please note that we have a single service of baptism. Baptism is a sacrament of the universal church and does not have any denominational aspect.
After the baptism, we hope you will stay involved in the life of the church, and we will do our best to keep in touch with you. As well as Sunday worship and Junior Church groups, we hope you will find other church activities of interest.