[1] Baptisms & Christenings

There are all sorts of reasons for wanting your baby to be baptized.

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.

We welcome all people who want their children to be baptized. At the same time, we recognise it requires the parents and Godparents to make some significant declarations on behalf of their children, and we take these seriously.

We ask parents to be involved in some preparation when they can get together with other parents and see what it might mean to have their baby baptized.

In order to be a Godparent, that person must themselves have been baptized. However, people who haven’t been baptized can still be a part of the service, as a sponsor. Traditionally, a child has three Godparents, two from their own gender and one from the opposite gender, but there are no rules or regulations about this.

At St John The Baptist the services usually take place on the 3rd Sunday of each month. Baptism services are public services: they either happen during the main parish family service, at 10am, or at 12am following on from the family service. Both have their advantages: at the family service, the congregation is able to welcome them fully as the people of the Church; at the 12am service, there’s more time to explain exactly what each part of the service means.

For the booking of Baptisms or simply to make an enquiry, please contact Rev'd Gary Townsend on 01622 813178 or email [email protected].