Welcoming ceremony

celticopia

Any ideas on how to frame or have a party to celebrate our childs welcome to this world without doing the christening? My grandad was in Artane and other reasons for not wanting to buy into the RC thing, we are christian though, just want ideas for how to deal with family and explain, and still get them to come along and celebrate the baby. Maybe I am worrying more than I should, but still, any ideas of how to handle this?

SerialComplaint

celticopia wrote: »

Any ideas on how to frame or have a party to celebrate our childs welcome to this world without doing the christening? My grandad was in Artane and other reasons for not wanting to buy into the RC thing, we are christian though, just want ideas for how to deal with family and explain, and still get them to come along and celebrate the baby. Maybe I am worrying more than I should, but still, any ideas of how to handle this?

Some ideas and options on this thread; http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72123609 or see http://www.humanism.org.uk/ceremonies/humanist-namings

I was at a lovely ceremony recently that included having nominated 'oddparents' (instead of the more traditional Godparents).

celticopia

Hi Serial,

we are christians, just not RC. My husband was raised in the south of the US, lots of baptists and things of that nature... so god parents are in, and we will announce that then so thats cool, its more framing the day, and organizing something appropriate to celebrate.

Orion

Moved to its own thread.

The Lovely Muffin

What about a small get together your house with family/friends etc?

You could ask various friends/family members to do readings, either prayers or poems etc?

Kinda like a Christening, but without the Church/official baptism part.

pwurple

Tyring to figure out which part you want to omit.

Godparents:Yes
Child will become RC:Yes?
Baptism: Yes?
Christening: No?
Party: Yes?

Hannibal Smith

I think that's a fabulous idea. Are you having it in your house? Why not sent little invitations around, you could print them off on your computer...get special paper etc...and invite people to the welcome, or celebrate the arrival of [baby's name]?

Or if you're inviting loads, or don't want it to be that formal do it via email

How Strange

We didn't christen our son but we didn't do anything else in its place either. I kind of felt that a naming ceremony or whatever was just a substitute christening. We didnt want the pomp and ceremony as much as the religion. However that's strictly my opinion and I'm very much of the 'each to their own' mindset.

John Mason

you could just have a "Sip and See" party either in your house or hire a room.

"sip some tea and see the baby"

iguana

If you are Christian then maybe you could contact your nearest Anglican church and ask if they do baby blessings. In the UK they will do a blessing ceremony for parents who don't want a baptism but would like some sort of religious ceremony. I'm not sure if they offer them here but they often tend to be much more laid back and accommodating than the RC clergy so they might be able to work something out for you.

celticopia

pwurple wrote: »

Tyring to figure out which part you want to omit.

Godparents:Yes
Child will become RC:Yes?
Baptism: Yes?
Christening: No?
Party: Yes?

Godparents - yes
Child will become RC - NO
Baptism - NO
Christening - NO
Party - Yes

I will christen/baptise her into a faith that we belong to later or if she asks to. As for now I just want to celebrate her arrival, and welcome her, and I don't feel that I have to involve the RC in order to do that

Squiggler

celticopia wrote: »

Hi Serial,

we are christians, just not RC. My husband was raised in the south of the US, lots of baptists and things of that nature... so god parents are in, and we will announce that then so thats cool, its more framing the day, and organizing something appropriate to celebrate.

What about a blessing? We're also non-RC Christian and don't believe in infant or child baptism.

We arrange a blessing, with family and friends invited, where we pray - thanking God for the child, asking for God's protection of the baby and that we and the extended family etc will teach it well and take good care of it. It could take place wherever you like, you could ask the godparents to pray or have them and other family take turns. And then you could have a meal or whatever afterwards with the guests.

pwurple

I think humanists will do a baby ceremony. Maybe check out if there are humanists in your area. The rest can be anything you like.

We had a baptism, but it just a small thing. Ceremony at about 2pm, and then sandwiches and cake in the local tearooms, in a room I had reserved. I was a bit nervous in advance not being much of a catholic. But it was better than I expected. It was a simple celebration of the baby arrival and we loved it. Should be no problem to do the same thing with something else replacing the church.

RH149

I have friends in the UK who just had a 'Naming Ceremony' for their kids- actually ceremony is exactly what it wasn't which made it different to a traditional Christening, they just went with that as a title for the 'event'. They had friends and family around to the house, lots of sandwiches , nibbles and fingerfood and a cake. When it came to cutting the cake they made a little speech officially naming the baby(did that themselves-no clergy) and acknowledged the 'godparents' as friends who would have a 'special place/role' in their child's life. It was all lovely and somehow more meaningful as a celebration. Many people go the traditional route of christening and party and Godparents and then never take the kids to Mass and the Godparents don't step in and do that instead which is their real role -so in the end(if you don't plan on raising him/her as RC) a Naming Party is probably a more genuine or sincere way to do it.

edellc

We had a humanist ceremony for our baby on his first birthday and it was lovely, we had it in the park in the summer with the duck pond behind us at a lovely quiet seating area, no one disturbed us and it was so nice and kids got to play in the playground afterwards

The lady meet us at the place a few months before hand and let us know the procedure, we prepared a poem and one of my relatives wrote a piece to say and another played a bit of music, we did opt to nominate two people who if anything should happen to me or the OH would step in and take parental control of our child, and we chose very carefully as we needed someone who understood what way we want him brought up as in schooling, religious education, discipline and the awareness of how we all came to being, so it wasnt just, oh your sister wants to be it so she is, it was a lot of thought and consideration and conversations with the individuals involved so they understood