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Church of England launches campaign to counter steep decline in baptisms
Last updated at 00:52am on 03.10.07The Church of England has launched a campaign to make baptisms more popular after it was revealed that the number has halved in 15 years.
Fewer than one in six of all infants is now baptised and in major cities the number has fallen to one in ten.
A book of guidance is being sent to clergy asking them to modernise their approach. One suggestion is that they make cohabiting couples feel more welcome, with a view to encouraging them to become regular churchgoers.
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Only one in six children is now baptised
The guide says: "For some families today, the baptism of a child represents an opportunity for the first public acknowledgement of the parents' relationship. Churches can use this as an opportunity to promote marriage."
Just over 15 per cent of babies were christened into the CofE in 2005. The total of 93,000 Anglican baptisms was just over half the 184,000 as recently as 1990, they revealed.
In the early 1930s seven out of ten of all children were baptised into the Cof E. More than a third were still christened in the early 1980s. Latest figures show that the popularity of christenings remains high in the countryside and some provincial towns but that in London and Birmingham fewer than one in ten babies are baptised.
The guidance, Connecting with Baptism, showed that the highest number of christenings is in Carlisle, where more than 40 per cent of babies are baptised.
"Significantly more infant baptisms as a proportion of births take place in rural dioceses such as Carlisle, Hereford and Lincoln," it said.
The drop in baptisms mirrors a long-term decline in church attendance overall. The CofE saw its figures for Sunday attendance drop below the million mark at around the turn of the millennium. Roman Catholic churches in much of the country have also seen a fall.
However large-scale immigration from Eastern Europe has meant some Catholic churches in London are overflowing on a Sunday.
Reader views (9)
I do not know if people from your part in the world can relate with the experiences of communities in the Philippines. A birth of a child is joyous occasion. In most cases, even before delivery friends of the parents offer themselves to be sponsors in the baptism. The baptism itself is both a social and a religious affair. The whole community looks forward to it. Sponsors are also expected to be more than surrogate parents. They are almost second parents to the baptised child. The ties also extend to the families of the sponsor so much so that the sponsors' children are called "hig-so-on" or literarily siblings.
- Leomil, Iloio, Philippines, 06/10/2007 16:37
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Add baptism to the money making list next to marriage!
- Stuart, UK, 03/10/2007 16:55
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I run the company that introduced naming ceremonies some 5 years ago and we offer this service both directly to the public and through the registration service. Naming ceremonies are both personal and flexible, can be held either in homes or suitable external venues and are conducted by a trained professional.
They are essentially about the relationship of the parents with the child, promises to the child are made by the parents and supporting adults are appointed. Feedback tells us that these ceremonies are a very special occasion for families who will remember them forever.
Where a family has religious belief, of course they will always select a baptism, but for many families without such conviction, these ceremonies provide a more personal and flexible choice. Surely this choice benefits both the families themselves and the clergy, who do not then feel they are conducting religious ceremonies for those who have only arranged them as there is no alternative!
- Anne Barber, St Neots, Cambs, 03/10/2007 15:34
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If you're not a Christian it's pointless having a baptism - the promises you make when you have your child baptised are all to do with bringing the child up to follow Jesus - strip away the faith aspect to baptism and all you have is a superstitious ritual.
- Claire, London, 03/10/2007 14:43
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"The drop in baptisms mirrors a long-term decline in church attendance overall"
Could it be that people aren't as superstitious as they used to be?
- Dave, London, 03/10/2007 14:12
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The picture on your website is from our local Catholic Church, that's Fr Benny, who has just left Bognor after 8 years as our Parish Priest.
- Susan, Bognor Regis, Sussex, 03/10/2007 12:57
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If you are a Christian person who believes in God and it is very important to choose those that will uphold the following: 1. Pray for your Godchild regularly
2. Set an example of Christian living
3. Help him to grow in the faith of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, in which he was baptised
4. Give every encouragement to follow Christ and fight against evil
In the now mainly faithless British society in which we live it is probably more honest to have naming ceremonies with "guardians" rather than Godparents -people you trust to watch over your children if required. They need to be just as carefully chosen.
I say this as an ex-Anglican vicar who baptised many babies of faithless parents, and felt rather compromised in so doing.
- Mel Roe-Stevens, Reading, uk, 03/10/2007 12:07
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Please explain to me why pouring water over a baby's head actually acheives anything!
- Slarty, Edinburgh, UK, 03/10/2007 10:07
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I am not a religious woman and to me baptism is just what we do in this country to celebrate a new arrival and share that with our friends. I am one half of a co-habiting couple my best friend is a single mother and we both had our children baptised in the Church of England. I was made to feel so welcome by the vicar and was invited to a new parishoners' lunch as well as a lunch to celebrate all baptisms in the church that year. That is in a church in London whose vicar has taken the lead in making the church central to local children's activities in the area, none of which are of a religious nature. If more churches took this on board and made their main focus day-to-day life rather than sermons and services they would find their numbers grow rapidly.
- Steph, Ilford, 03/10/2007 09:46
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