Even those sticking to traditional silver may be cutting corners. Babies may still cry from time to time, but it's far less likely to be the shrill shriek after being doused in freezing water.
How then would you provide warm water? It's got to be a relatively new phenomenon. Some rural churches may not yet have the capacity. The Church of England is still developing its language for the service. Until christening services were still given in 17th Century language.
But while the Alternative Service Book introduced modern language, it provided "quite a thin service, with short questions and fewer [of them]", says Stratford. The Common Worship, introduced in , hasn't pleased everybody. It prompted the general synod in to agree new language was required, although the specifics have not yet been agreed. Questions over the use of the word "submit" - as in "Do you submit to Christ as Lord? Christening gift - Flickr. There are fewer christenings.
But more godparents. Liz Hurley chose Sir Elton John to be one of her son's godfathers. And it's not just a celebrity fad. If godmother doesn't fit, how about "fairy ungodly mother"? The rise of baby-naming ceremonies. Children baptised later in life. Geri Halliwell's daughter Bluebell Madonna was christened at 11 months old. Christening gowns are out of fashion. Do many baptised babies go on to be confirmed and to follow Jesus Christ all the days of their lives because of input from their godparents?
Godparents are not an essential part of the sacrament of baptism. What worked well in a parish a thousand years ago is perhaps not best-suited to the altered conditions of the 21st century.
The Church of England needs to have a debate about baptism and the place of godparents, if it is to fulfil its responsibilities both towards God and towards the people who come to it seeking baptism for their children. It might, for example, decide, after careful consideration, to retain the requirement for godparents to be both baptised and confirmed, but make godparents optional; or it might say that just one godparent, instead of three, would suffice.
The first step is the frank acknowledgement of a widening gap between the expectations of godparents expressed in canon law and the daily reality in parishes in England.
Faith, like flu, is caught from other people. I should not like to think that some babies went without baptism simply because there was a problem in finding suitable godparents. Baptism matters and has eternal consequences. We do not want to cheapen it, but neither do we want to erect — even inadvertently — unnecessary barriers.
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Interviews and news analysis from the Church Times team. Traditionally, Christian children have three godparents in total, though they can have as many as the parent wants. Girls usually have two godmothers and one godfather while boys have two godfathers and one godmother but there is no hard and fast rules nowadays. Non-practising Christians can have as many or as few as they like, though it is customary to have at least one godfather and one godmother.
Having godparents is thought to date back to the second century, when baptisms became widespread. When a child is born parents will often turn to close family members or friends and ask them to be a godparent to their child.
Traditionally, godparents were responsible for ensuring a child's religious education and helping them develop their faith.
But in modern times, the individual is chosen by parents to take a general interest in the kid's wellbeing and development, not necessarily with a religious aspect.
This is not a legal appointment and, should anything happen to the parents, godparents would not automatically become responsible for that child.
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