Genealogy Chat

I have always understood the difference to be: Anyone, in extremis, can baptise a child, or adult, as long as they are themselves a member of the Christian Faith - God accepts the child as one of his own under those circumstances. Christening is the Church ritual which receives the child into the Christian church and can only be carried out by an officer of Christ - a priest or vicar in other words. This makes the person a paid up member of the club. OC

Hi Joseanne, Do you think that the vicars who recorded baptisms in the PRs for my village used the terms 'christened' and 'received' interchangeably? I'm curious because I've never worked out what was going on. This 'double baptism' procedure seems to have started in 1813, and continued into the mid 19th century. Generally, there is a date in the usual column indicating when the child was baptised, and then at the very right hand side of the page, there is another column, which usually states 'Received <date>' or 'Christened <date>'. The dates are always different from the baptism dates. Occasionally, the note in the column reads 'baptised and received same day', or 'christened only' or 'received only' with no additional date. The use of the words 'received' and 'christened' tend to be grouped, as if one vicar preferred the use of one term in particular. Whatever the purpose of using the different terms, there does appear to have been a difference between 'baptism' and 'christening' in this church, if nowhere else. It is rather confusing! Chris

There is no difference between Baptism & Christening. Baptism is a word you will find in the Bible and Christening isn't. When a baby is baptised at home [or now adays in hospital] the normal procedure is that the church will ask that if the child survives they come to church to receive the formal 'Welcome' from the congregation, this was known as 'Being Received into the Church'. Some churches today who have to have afternoon Baptisms because the church isn't large enough to accomadate the guests as well as the normal congregation will ask the family to return the following week for a Welcome. Christening is just another word for Baptism. You will find it is a Service of Holy Baptism not a Service of Christening.

I believe baptism is the sacrament - i.e the washing away of sins, symbolised by the water. Christening is welcoming into the Church of Christ. Usually the two things happen together at the same service. Church Register is called the baptism register, not christening register. As someone else has said, you sometimes get private baptism at home (which can be done by anyone in an emergency) followed later by being 'received' into the church - this is always done in church, in the presence of the vicar. Jay

Ed, just to add to this, I've transcribed all the baptism PRs for the village where I live, and for long periods most of the babies were baptised AND christened (or 'received into the church'), on different dates. A few were baptised only or christened only. I believe that this meant the baptism may have been carried out at home very soon after the birth, followed by a formal christening in church a little later. It may have been the result of an overly cautious vicar, just making sure that if the baby was sickly, he would have baptised it before it died. Chris

thanks, i have it now.

as in catholicism and c of e ?

There isn't any really......it's purely a matter of terminology. Some branches of the Christian church favour one term..........others use the alternative. I'm sure any online dictionary would have the full definitions........ Reg

between a baptism and christening ?