Alternatives to traditional Christenings

[Joshjunior]

I would very much like my ds to be Christened in 'some way' but my dilema is that my sister and her husband are not church goers and I / they would feel awkward at some of the declarations they would need to make at a traditional Christening. They are, however the people I would want to help guide ds in his upbringing. The vicar is very nice and understands this so is happy to do some sort of blessing at home. Has anyone done a similar thing?

had ds christened at local church and was a bit religious, but one of my sister's who doesn't actually believe in God attended and didn't make any uncomfortableness known...are you sure they couldn't do it on the day and maybe alter the declaration reading a bit (know marriage readings are flexible like this, not sure about Christenings though)....btw, what are the declaration things saying?...sure someone here will have experience of a home blessing and be able to advise you...just wanted to say something here...priest sounds nice

Thanks baldrick, I'm going to have word with vicar tomorrow and see what he has in mind. Yes I suppose they could delare that they trust and belive in God but as they never set foot in Church I would feel awkward about this. Vicar was previously a high roller in the Banking world in London, has 4 kids of his own so has lived in the 'real world' iykwim! I'm sure he will have some ideas.

There is a fairly standard CofE alternative - the entire text of the service can be found here . Basically you are thanking God for the gift of a child and the godparents/supporters are just agreeing to help you bring up your ds - not specifically bring them up in a Christian environment or even to be a Christian. The only "religious" aspect to their commitment is that the standard response is "With the help of God, I do".

We had a similar service to this for our ds's a couple of weeks ago. Ususally your minister will allow some additional stuff if you want, so we were able to say something about what the ds's meant to us (both were IVF babies), and we were also encouraged to explain what their names meant and why we had chosen them (as they have 3 forenames each this took a while!).

As we had been supported through our infertility by so many of our friends and family we had the church service, but also repeated this aspect of the sevice at home during a party afterwards. Too many of my friends have very small children who would not have coped with the full service (our bit was held in the main Sunday morning service). I suspect the minister would also have been happy to have just down the afternoon bit if we had wanted, so church attendance may be optional.

The difference in the service is that at the end of it your ds will not have been baptised within the CofE, though in general this shouldn't make much difference. He will have the opportunity to do so if and when he wants to. We felt that we could not make any such decision for our ds's - it has to be of their own choosing later. Yet we did want to declare our thankfulness and dedicate ourselves publicly to bringing them up. There are other non-religious alternatives altogether - the humanist society will do a "naming ceremony" for example, but certainly the CofE may be fine for you!

HTH

Should have made clear - I was just looking at what the godparents would have to say when thinking about the religious bits - obviously there is still a fair bit of religion present in the service!

Thanks LadyMuck this sounds ideal for us as a family.