Baptism or 'Christening' are freely available at St John's. We're hope to share in your preparation for this big event in your child's life...

The Challenge
Baptism is about becoming a member of the Body of Christ represented by a specific Christian community - it's also about celebrating the joy that your family feel at the new life and the changes that this child has made to your relationships, your family and your priorities.

We want you to be able to enjoy your child's baptism and feel that you can make the promises with a clear conscience and a good idea of what is involved. So we've worked hard on 3 objectives

Our objectives
To enable you to have a clearer understanding of baptism and the community of faith they are asking to join;

To ensure you are explicitly welcomed and cared for in our congregation by a recognised and duly authorised team;

And to enable the congregation to support you by their prayers as you prepare for your child's baptism.

The Group
Led by Daniel Eshun families preparing for baptism will meet on (usually) the 2nd Wednesday of every month in the Parish Office.  You can join the group at any point but will need to attend 3 meetings and attend the 10am Parish Mass at least 3 Sundays out of 5 in the 3 month preparation period.

The course content
Using ‘Your baby’s baptism’ as a source book the three sessions will cover different areas and allow for different questions around these three topics. We aim to ensure you understand what baptism is and that your baby's baptism will make her a member of the Body of Christ, also that you'll deepen your understanding of the family of the Church and the way in which God is the source of all our loving.

Course Cost
Baptism is God's free gift to us and so there is no charge for the Sacrament but parents are asked to contribute £10 to cover the costs of the baptism course (booklet, tea & coffee, etc).