Christening - not sure what to do?

[allthegoodusersaretaken]

Hi all, DH and I are expecting our first baby later this year. I would like him/her to be baptised, but the only person eligible to be a godparent is my sister, which I feel kind of defeats the point? DH/his family are not baptised so none of them would be eligible, and none of our closest friends are baptised either. We do know people who would be eligible to be godparents, but not necessarily people we’d want to choose as we’re not particularly close. Admittedly we’re not people who go to church every Sunday so no church friends as such, although I do try to go on special occasions and when I feel like I need guidance. I know the recommendation is 3 godparents (CofE), but I honestly don’t think I can choose any. Would it be weird to just have my sister as the only godparent, and even then just for the sake of having one? Feeling really conflicted over this tbh.

Thank you, that is a good question to ask.
I would encourage you to consider whether a baptism or a thanksgiving service is best for you.

In a (CofE) baptism, parents and godparents make promises before God to help the child to follow Christ Jesus.
In a thanksgiving service, the minister thanks God for, and prays for, the new child; but there is less commitment on the parents/godparents.

If, as you say, you do not "go to church every Sunday" I would encourage you to consider whether you really follow Jesus youself and want your child to do the same.

If not, then perhaps what you is a thanksgiving service; do ask for that - all the CofE churches I know will offer it.

But please do think about what you believe - occasional attendance is not the same as true faith in Jesus.

As a Church of Scotland this is an interesting post as I never knew / realised that this was a requirement in the Church of England.
( I believe from other threads it is a requirement in the Catholic Church ? )

I don't know if this is a requirement in the Church of Scotland, it wasn't something I was asked.

Dh and I each chose 2 people, it so happened we both chose a man and a woman.

I had my oldest friend, who too was brought up in the Church of Scotland, and my male friend is very Church of England and would definitely be baptised.
I have no idea if Dh's friends were baptised.

Our hardest bit was finding a Church of Scotland as we lived in an outer London Borough, and this was before the days of Google.
and yes I found one, and dd was baptised at 6 weeks old.

Good advice by @Interl0per

My observation is there is nothing in the Bible about a requirement to baptise children as they all belong to the Lord. So don’t worry about any ‘formal’ man-made ceremonial stuff. In my old church parents brought their babies to dedicate them to the Lord, bless their name, and for the parents and whole church to prayerfully promise to support and raise the child according to His Will.

For me, being a pedant, I have a challenge with the word/idea of ‘christening’ as we cannot impose knowledge of the love of Christ Jesus on anyone, young or old. That is, to become a Christian we need to make our own decision to accept Christ Jesus for ourselves … just because something was done to us as a baby or child, or just because we were dragged to church every Sunday and were raised by Christian parents, does not make anyone automatically ‘Christian’. Most young people are capable of making that decision for themselves around the age of 10 to 14.

I think you'd need to chat to the vicar or whoever is in charge of baptisms, they might allow you to have your sister and a non baptised person to be godparents. What about your own parents, could they step into the role?