naming ceromonies

[rosie]

Hi All

What is the difference between a christening and a baptism?

I've always believed that a christening was a protestant ceromony and a baptism was a catholic ceromony(no idea why i know this maybe someone told me this when i was a child). Anyhow i've had a look on google and quite frankly i'm even more googled

I would apprieciate your thoughts on the subject

[arthurk]

The answer may depend on who you ask. To someone who believes in infant baptism (eg Roman Catholics, Church of England and other Anglican churches, Church of Scotland, Methodists etc) there is no difference, although baptism tends to be the more formal term. There may also be a tendency to speak of baptism when referring to infant baptism in order to emphasise their belief that it is fully valid, and to differentiate themselves from those who believe otherwise. Those who don't believe in infant baptism (mainly Baptists) use "baptism" to refer to the rite performed on adults, and they might use "christening" to refer to the infant rite, with the implication that in their view it isn't a baptism at all.

Occasionally people argue that the Church of England (and presumably other Anglican churches) uses "baptism" and "christening" to refer to two different things, since both terms appear in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. I think their suggestion is that the baptism is the part with water, and the christening is receiving the child into the church (and certainly when children were baptised privately at home because they were gravely ill, if they survived there was meant to be a later reception into the church); however, a careful reading of the BCP does not support this view: "baptism" and "christening" are treated there as exact equivalents. (I write this from my own English C of E point of view; others may wish to add a more Scottish persepctive.)

Does this help?

Arthur

[Montrose Budie]

I can't better Arthur's reply.

mb

[rosie]

Hello Arthur

Thanks very much for your reply. It does help in the sense that depending which faith you believe in , views and practices may differ.Im not a practising church goer although I do believe there's a higher being, I was christened /baptised in the church of Scotland and have never questioned it until someone at work said that a christening was just a naming ceromony and that baptism is recieving the child into the church. My work colleague's minister told her this( church of Scotland).So I can't comment if this is true or false., but it's interesting to get others points of view, so thankyou very much for your help.

Rosie