Christening in two countries

[hm8688]

Hi all, Im British but live in Germany where my partner is from and where our daughter was born in December.

We had planned to have her christened in England but the only time we can travel this year is in June and one of the (German) godparents cant get time off work.

Im trying to think of solutions and wondered if anyone had held a christening in the UK for the British family and a christening in a second country for the other side of the family? Both families are Protestant so is there any reason we cant do this? I hear of people having weddings in two countries for the different families, but not christenings !

You can only be baptised once, so a vicar would not be able to baptise the baby again. They may be able to hold a blessing/welcome to the church family type service if you asked them.
Your godparent who is unable to make it could still take on the role of godparent in the childs life, they just wouldn't be on the baptism certificate.

What does your church suggest?

I haven't approached them about it yet. TBH, I wanted to see if it was a viable idea first before approaching them and seeing if they would agree!

I am sure any reasonable vicar/minister would be happy to incorporate some prayers of welcome into a Sunday service for your baby, and you could organise a party afterwards. But you absolutely can only be baptised once.

A christening is not a party! You can't baptise the child twice just for photos, no priest will do it.

You choose a different godparent or a different day.

You can only be baptised once, but of course you can have as many christening parties as you like.

One of our chosen godparents couldn’t make the (Catholic) church ceremony so someone else stood in on the day, but the original person is still the official godparent.

This is the info from our local church. It is Catholic but hopefully the same might apply for Protestant ceremonies, but you would need to check with your church.

“Can someone serve as godparent by proxy (stand-in) if the godparent is unable to participate in the baptism ceremony? If a godparent cannot attend the baptism ceremony, a proxy can stand in the place of the missing godparent. The name of that person will be entered as “proxy” in the Sacramental Record Book, along with the name of the missing godparent.”

Oops, just looked it up and it seems the same doesn’t apply in CoE at least. Sorry for the confusion OP.

“Godparents are really important people at a christening. A person can only be an official godparent if they are physically present at the service, since they will make some big promises for and on behalf of the child on the day.
As they are already making promises on behalf of the child, to have another person making promises on their behalf confuses who is making promises on behalf of who! So there is actually no provision in the Church of England for ‘godparents by proxy’.
However, if a special person who you wanted to be a godparent is unable to make it to a christening, there is no reason why they can’t be asked to take on a godparent-like role unofficially, and that kind of relationship can be encouraged throughout the child’s life, but they wouldn’t be entered into the Baptism Register after the christening. If the church has the facilities, they could perhaps be linked via Skype or similar software, so they can still see the service.”

I’d still speak to your celebrant just to check, but you might have to choose someone else to be godparent unfortunately?

This doesn't apply to a Church of England baptism.

Is it possible to have godparents by proxy?
Godparents are really important people at a christening. A person can only be an official godparent if they are physically present at the service, since they will make some big promises for and on behalf of the child on the day.
As they are already making promises on behalf of the child, to have another person making promises on their behalf confuses who is making promises on behalf of who! So there is actually no provision in the Church of England for ‘godparents by proxy’.
However, if a special person who you wanted to be a godparent is unable to make it to a christening, there is no reason why they can’t be asked to take on a godparent-like role unofficially, and that kind of relationship can be encouraged throughout the child’s life, but they wouldn’t be entered into the Baptism Register after the christening. If the church has the facilities, they could perhaps be linked via Skype or similar software, so they can still see the service.

cross post!!

Yes, I spoke too soon. Apologies OP.