We welcome everyone who wishes to be baptised or christened in church or who wishes to arrange for a child be baptised. Baptisms and Christenings are the same thing, just different words.

Baptisms usually happen during 10.45am services on a Sunday morning at St James in Defford. These occur on the fourth Sunday of the month. As St Peter in Besford has only one service a month at 9am, special arrangements can be made for an out of service baptism to take place.

The tradition for godparents is that you have three, but there are no set rules for this and within reason any number is permissible. Godparents should have been baptised into the Church of England themselves. If one of your chosen godparents has not been baptised, they can still sponsor the child being baptised and say slightly different vows.

If you would like to arrange a christening or baptism, please complete the application form below and return it to Alison Khan at [email protected] and she will be in touch to help you arrange a date.

To find out more about baptisms and christenings in the Church of England visit

https://www.churchofengland.org/life-events/christenings