Baptism is joyful time, a ‘sacrament', a visible sign of God's love. In baptism, we are thanking God for his gift of life and publicly acknowledging his love. We are acknowledging that we all need to turn away from selfishness and evil and to accept God’s offer of a new start.
When you ask for your child to be baptised, you as parents are thanking God for his gift of life, making a decision to start your child on the journey of faith and asking for the Church's support. For your child, baptism marks the start of their faith journey, which involves turning towards Christ, away from all that is evil, and becoming a member of the local and worldwide Christian family.
More information on the Anglican understanding and practice of baptism and confirmation can be found here...
The procedure for baptism is:
- Contact the Parish Office on 01908 611145, npparish@gmail.com, for guidance and an information pack.
- In this parish all parents asking that their child be baptised must attend a baptism preparation session. The dates are in the information pack.
- You will need to agree a date for the baptism. Generally this will be at St Peter & St Paul’s, but if you have a connection with one of the other churches in the Benefice it can take place there.
- The baptism certificate is given out at a mainstream service on any Sunday after the baptism. This is so that you can familiarise yourself with the congregation. Remember your child is being baptised into a new ‘family’ – the family of Christ’s church so it is good to meet each other – particularly if your child’s baptism is an afternoon one when the regular congregation is absent! At this time a small gift is also given to the families of children baptised in previous weeks.
It is important that parents and Godparents of children being baptised are baptised themselves since they will be making promises of commitment to God at the service. More simply – it seems crazy to make baptism vows for our children if we are not prepared to be baptised ourselves! Sometimes, if they are not baptised already, parents and Godparents are baptised at the same time as their baby. For any questions about this please contact the Rector for a chat.
All adults who have been baptised, as infants or later in life, can receive the bread and wine at any Church of England Communion service.
CONFIRMATION
What we now call confirmation was originally part of a wider ceremony of Christian initiation and only became a separate rite when bishops were no longer able to preside at all baptisms. It takes place when people are old enough to affirm baptism vows for themselves. Adults who have not been baptised as infants are baptised and confirmed at the same time.
As a separate rite, confirmation marks the point in the Christian journey at which the participation in the life of God’s people inaugurated at baptism is confirmed by the bishop by the laying on of hands, and in which those who have been baptised affirm for themselves the faith into which they have been baptised and their intention to live a life of responsible and committed discipleship. Through prayer and the laying on of hands by the confirming bishop, the Church also asks God to give the candidate power through the Holy Spirit to enable them to live as Christians in a world that often takes no notice of who Jesus is.
For all enquiries about confirmation please contact the Parish Office npparish@gmail.com