Baptism (or Christening – they mean the same thing) is how you become a member of God’s family, the Church. We are really pleased you are interested in a baptism at Christ Church. There is no charge – they are free, but we do ask for a donation to cover our costs if you are able.

Contact the Vicar to arrange a christening here.  Carry on scrolling for more information.

Things you need to know

Christenings at Christ Church* are held on Sundays, within a service, or at a separate time, usually at 1130 or 12noon.

Godparents should themselves be baptised.

We welcome everyone and don’t set any barriers or conditions, other than you promise to teach your child something about Christianity, the faith into which they have been baptised.

The process…

• You will need to meet with (usually) the parish priest, arrange a date for the christening which suits you both and fill in the booking form. Use our contact form** to make the appointment. Once it is booked your baptism is now officially in the church diary and will happen as planned; you can send out your invitations! We do not usually send reminders of the event.
• Our baptism visitor will contact you and make an appointment to go through the service with you, answer any questions and make sure you are prepared for the service. This is usually in the week before the christening. We have a Bible reading in the service (which you can choose) and sometimes family members might like to do this. Your baptism visitor will explain everything
• On the day, don’t worry about children moving around or making a noise! The priest will explain everything as the service happens. We do discourage too much photography as a baptism is a very important Christian event and we would prefer people to be involved in what is happening. There will be opportunities for photos after the service.
• Part of the baptism service is the ‘welcome’ where the church community is intended to welcome the newly baptised member. Obviously if your baptism is apart from the normal Sunday service then there won’t be any church community there, so we ask you to come to the next informal service we have (which are on the 1^st Sunday of the month at 10am) where we can welcome you and give you your baptism candle and certificate. Our informal services are shorter, more family-friendly and usually have a lot of children taking part.

There is a useful website here . This booklet, What is baptism, will tell you more.

This guide What being a Godparent means will give you information on what your Godparents will need to know.

*If you don’t know which parish you live in try the A Church Near You website. Put your postcode in to the parish finder and it will tell you.

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