Baptism | Papakura Anglican

Baptism & Dedication

Thanks for considering a baptism or dedication at Papakura Anglican.

Infant baptism

For new parents, this is an opportunity for you to thank God for the arrival of your new child and to ask for God’s blessing on their life and your family as you continue your parenting journey.

Adult baptism

For adults who profess a faith in Christ, the baptism service involves the exchange of promises between God and the individual, sealed with a ceremonial washing with water, accompanied by prayer.

What is the difference between Baptism and Dedication?

Baptism is the rite of initiation into the Body of Christ, The Church. Baptism is similar to a marriage where holy vows are made before God on behalf of the child. The individual and sponsors [godparents] make vows before God and the Body of Christ the Church to bring the individual up in the Christian faith. We as the faith community respond to this, and commit to share with your child the Christian faith. This will involve you regularly attending church so that not only can you keep your vows, but we the Body of Christ the church may also keep our vows to nurture this new person in the faith we ourselves have received.

Dedication works well where as parents, you wish your child to make their own decision about baptism later in life or you wish to dedicate your child very close to the birth and have baptism at a more convenient date. Dedication may also work where you do not attend church and don’t intend to, but are considering dedication for the sake of other family members, or maybe you as parents you are divided over what decision to make. You should understand that this service in not a baptism.

What can we expect at the service?

A baptism or dedication would normally happen within our Family Service on Sundays at 9:00am (arrive by 8:50am).

There is huge scope within a dedication service to customise it to your needs. A dedication service can happen outside of normal service times, or at an alternate venue.

There is no ability to customise a Baptism as this service is set by our church constitution. A baptism must happen within a church service, be this in one of our buildings, or occasionally in the sea or a river where the baptism candidate is older. The only instance in which baptism happens outside of the gathered church community is in an emergency.

If you are interested in Baptism, you will need to be introduced to the minister. The minister will then give you some information and arrange for a time to come and talk with you. We believe that Baptism is a very significant step in someone’s life.

Baptism is a faith relationship between God and His people. When we come to baptise children, we are making promises to God and to one another that we love Jesus as the centre of our lives, we love His church and we promise that we will bring up our children within the ways of God and within the community of God’s people.

Because of the seriousness of the promises that people make we believe that people should take time to think, reflect and examine why they are searching for baptism.

Your next step is to fill the baptism form in below. We will then make contact to arrange baptism preparation.