Baptisms/Christenings

Baptism (also known as christening)

We are delighted that you are thinking of baptism for your child. Your child is precious to you and precious to God. At baptism you promise to raise your child to know that God loves them, and to help them to follow Jesus as a member of the Church.

In addition to baptism, we also offer a Thanksgiving service which can be used as a way of saying
thank you to God for your child and seeking His blessing upon the child’s life.

 

What is baptism?

In baptism, you as parents are:

  • thanking God for his gift of life
  • making a decision to start your child on a journey of faith
  • asking for the Church’s support

For your child, baptism marks the start of a journey of faith, which involves turning away from all that is evil, turning towards Christ and becoming a member of the local and worldwide Christian family. In baptism, we thank God for his gift of life and publicly acknowledge his love.

 

What do you do next?

Baptisms at St. Peter’s usually take place once a month during our regular 10.30 a.m. service. If you
would like to know more, please come along to one of our regular Sunday services. After the service,
introduce yourself to our Rector, Rev Rachel Hawkins, who will talk with you about the next steps.
You may wish to take a look at the Church of England’s website which has more detailed information
about baptism: https://churchofenglandchristenings.org/

 

Baptism of adults

Increasingly, those who were not baptized as children are considering being baptized as adults. If
you want to explore this, please talk to our Rector after one of our Sunday morning services.