Baptism

I went to a Christening on Sunday, at St Michael's, Cornhill, allowing me to see one of our more notorious priests in action. More importantly, although I've seen a lot of Christenings in recent years, this was the first for ages done outside of the normal Sunday service. it threw up a number of issues for me:

• I had forgotten how short baptism is. As I said, I haven't been to a standalone Christening for years, not since the last round of family ones, and I didn't make all of those. We're were done inside 15 minutes, and, while it was perfectly nice to see, it felt odd going in and out so rapidly.
• I felt the lack of a congregation. Inevitably, the small set of us there were all family and friends, not parishioners. It makes the welcome very different to a congregation-led one. And I think I prefer the latter.
• I wasn't entirely sure what it was for? I later chatted to another friend who was godfather, but didn't stand in the church because he was uncomfortable about saying 'I renounce Satan.' I'm not then sure why he is godfather.
• It reminds me of the strength of the social element of the CofE. Even though I don't think the parents really believed very hard, they still wanted their baby baptised.

It's that last that I was most surprised by. I had roughly assumed that my friends pretty much divided into people who went to church semi-regularly and those who thought it was all nonsense. The former would baptise, the latter wouldn't. But I have a feeling that hard edge is very much a function of youth, and I can look forward to the occasion when previously irreligious couples starting frequenting church when pregnant, only to ramp it once more when the children get to school age.

Now, we can easily make too much of an issue about this - godparents have always been a bit random; religiosity has never been a major part of church for some people. But, though it was a nice little service, I cannot help feeling that it's not quite right for churches to let people get away with this. I have long advocated higher charges for non-Christians at church weddings; and I feel that it should insist if you want the second sacrament, you have to sit through the first.

It plays into a general view in my mind of what baptism is and what it is for. My own views on which are complicated, and also the scene of a hard fought compromise between A & I over how we tackle the God issue with them so I might do them later. For now though, I think I'll limit myself to going on record as saying when it happens for mine, it will be during the service. It's supposed to be (at least partly) an initiation into the wider church; done on a standalone basis, it looks a bit like a naming ceremony for your friends, and that's slightly odd, though there are worse problems. I will withhold the anathema.