Firstly, congratulations upon becoming parents and thank you for considering St Oswald's Church as the place for your child’s Christening.

Just to explain, a Baptism and a Christening are the same thing - the first step of an amazing journey with God. At the Christening, water is poured over your child’s head as he or she is baptised in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Christenings usually take place in Church on Sundays at 12.30 midday and usually with no more than two families at each service, which means it is more personal.

Christenings also take place by arrangement during the main service which is at 10.30 am.

During a Baptism service, both parents and god-parents will be asked to make various promises over their child's life, one of which is to raise their child as part of the church family (community). In order to get to know your church family, therefore, we normally ask for all prospective baptism families to come along to two or three services, before we book any dates. This will help you get to know people and be fully welcomed into the church body. We love having children in the church, so please don't worry about 'having to be quiet' during the service. It's just their way of speaking to God :)

Once we have all the details, we will arrange to visit you to prepare for the Christening, to explore what it means for you, and to explain the service itself. 

We encourage families living outside the parish to contact your local parish church and we are happy to help you make contact with the right person within your parish. We recognise too that there are occasions where families do not live in this parish and are not on the electoral roll, but who do have strong and established links to St Oswald's. We will be pleased to discuss this with you.

For more information about Christenings click on the Church of England tab (below), then select Life Events, Christenings.

https://churchofenglandchristenings.org/

Adult Baptism

We are also delighted to hear from adults wishing to know more about baptism and confirmation. Please let us know should you wish to discuss this further with us.  

http://stoswaldschurchbidston.org/