How do non church-goers get their children Christened?

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Just that really. Moved to a new area (again) and I we are planning on settling here now. Woukd like to get our baby christened as he's already walking and chosen God Parents are about to give up on us.

Never were big church goers but tend to spend a couple of years dipping in and out of various ones before we get a regular (didn't mean it to sound so similar to going to the pub. Sorry).

But I don't want to wait that long and I'm beginning to feel Gods impatience.

Oh good a discussion on canon law! When I was at theological college it was made very clear to those training as clergy that we could not refuse to baptise a baby or child whose parents requested it if they lived in the parish and had their Godparents ready and willing. It is certainly the case that some clergy (including the bishop whose campaigning organisation Baptism Integrity was quoted on page 1) would prefer to only baptise children of regular church attenders or go the whole hog and keep baptism for adults with dedications for babies but this rather excellent site points out that this goes against canon law.

lawandreligion

Blimey, I'd a vicar insists we attend for 6 months you can be sure when 6 months has passed I will feel I have paid my dues and never set foot in there again.

I said God is getting impatient with me. The God parents certainly are which I am taking as HIs word. No-one is getting impatient with my children except me at times. I don't believe He woukd treat them any diffetently should they need to enter His Kingdom un-christened . His beef would be with me, not them, as it is about my attendance at church or otherwise.

thegreenheartofmanyroundabouts Really?

So, you would baptize my friends child?
He is a divorced Catholic.
His new partner (also Catholic in name at least) is married still - they are working on an amicable divorce.

If this young couple came to your CofE Church to baptize their child, you would welcome them?

If they were in your parish, hypothetically speaking

What is about your attendance at church op ? I really don't understand why you want them christened but Will never set foot in the church again after? Why not? What makes you think God is getting impatient with you? I am very confused as to what you believe.

God couldn't give a monkeys whether someone is christened, dedicated, baptised or what. What God wants is a relationship with you, where you accept his love and have a relationship with him. Traditions are not important.

My mother had a right panic about my children, she firmly believed God would not know them, and not love them until they had been baptized. And if they were to die before baptizm, they would be condemned in the same way as a non-believer.

Most people of the same school of Lutheran (Læstadian) faith as her believed similar which is why they had a habit of popping into the hospital chapel for the Christening on the way out! No ceremony and no celebration, just a quickie for the road!

QuintessentialShadows if your friends came to my church of course I would welcome them. If they wanted their child baptised into the Church of England then yes that could happen but changing denominations is a big thing to do so there would be more to talk about in baptism preparation.

I think they are both disillusioned by the Catholic church, but Christian if you see what I mean.

I will set foot in a church again. I hope one day to find the right one, get over some of the aspects of going to church that panic me and make my peace with God enough to mean what I say in the liturgy.

I would however, go under sufferance for a vicar who insisted I attended and feel I'd 'done time' as payment for their services and feel relieved of my obligations thereafter.

Because I feel a duty to my 3rd child to not be the only member of my family not Christened and risk him believe that neither he nor being a Christian is important.

Starlight getting christened is about being welcomed into the church community, so it's not really that odd for a church to feel that the families of those getting christened to make some sort of commitment before the ceremony. I would suspect that these 'rules' are n place simply to put off people who are purely getting their children christened in order to have the certificate for a preferred school, or for an excuse for a party.

I'm an atheist so neither of my children are christened (although my mother finds that sad and my sister and brother in law would perform the ceremony no doubt). It is an important ceremony with fairly serious vows and should not I think be taken as lightly as many parents seem to.

No it isn't. It is about being welcomed into the Christian Family.

Otherwise why would the vicar at a hospice 200 miles from where we live have offered to do it?

And how does it work for travellers and other people (like us) who have had to move so much.

Christening isn't biblical it was introduced when childhood mortality was high and I believe it was based in a misunderstanding of the bible. The bible talks about baptism of adults.

Was it not introduced as an alternative to circumcision?