HAVING YOUR CHILD CHRISTENED AT ST. MARY'S

Please contact the Parish Office, who will be delighted to hear from you and to help you make arrangements to have your child christened - or “baptised”, which is another word for the same thing . Both words describe God’s loving welcome into the family of His Church, for which there is of course no charge or fee to pay!

In Horsham we arrange for Baptisms to take place in the Parish Church nearest to where you live, so that one of the first questions you will be asked is for your current home address. (An exception to this concerns our church members who are on the electoral roll at St. Mary’s - who of course can expect the ceremony to be conducted within their own Church family regardless of address). We will then give you the contact details of the Vicar & Parish Church in whose area you live, so you can make arrangements with them.

If you live in the St. Mary’s pastoral area of our parish, we will then fix a date with you for the Baptism to take place (usually at 12 noon in Church, on a Sunday that we agree together).

The next thing to happen will be that you are contacted by a member of the St. Mary’s Baptism visiting team, who will arrange to meet you at home – when they will be pleased to answer any questions and explain more about the meaning of Baptism, and will give you a baptism form to complete and return to the Parish Office.

The baptism form includes your choice of 3 (or more) godparents – who you need to check have been baptised themselves (and preferably also confirmed) as Christians – since their main role is to help you as parents, in bringing up your child as a Christian within the family of the Church.

The Baptism visitor will invite you to one of our popular “Kairos” services (designed especially for young families), which takes place at 11.30am on the first Sunday of the month – at which the visitor will ensure that you and your family receive a warm welcome.

Nearer the date of the Baptism, you will be contacted by the Minister who will be conducting the service – who will want to visit to get to know you as a family, to talk through the details of the Baptism Service itself, and to answer any questions that you may have – including about what it means to belong to the wider Church family of St. Mary’s.

We look forward to welcoming you!