Smarden Church and Biddenden Church: baptisms

Baptism at St Michael Smarden or All Saints Biddenden

Welcome. Congratulations if you are thinking about a baptism for yourself or your children. If you are not sure what this involves Alex Bienfait (Rector) or Judy Darkins (Assistant Curate) will be happy to meet and discuss this with you.

We encourage baptisms to take place in one of main Sunday services. The All Age family service are particularly suitable, this takes place 3rd Sunday of month 9:30am Biddenden, 11am Smarden. Alternatively, we also set aside the opportunity for baptism service at 12:30pm on the 1st Sunday of the month after the main morning services.

To book a baptism it helps if you've been to one of our services. This is important, as you get a chance to meet us and helps you and your children get familiar with our church, see details of our service times. Children are welcome to all our services, we also have a Sunday School in both Biddenden and Smarden, see details here.

A baptism application form can be downloaded here or can be picked up from the back of the Church. A date is easiest to agree when we get a chance to meet you in Church.

Once we have received your application, we write to confirm the date and time of the baptism, and arrange a time to meet and discuss the service with you; this is usually an evening in the week immediately before the baptism.

Baptism of children who live outside the parish:

The baptism service asks parents to make a serious commitment about the way they bring up children within the church family. The Church of England therefore assumes the best place to full-fill that commitment is local to where you live, and so assumes that's where baptism best take place If you are living outside the parish, we might ask you to make contact with your local parish church first, before arranging the baptism.

Adults:

There is no maximum or minimum age for a baptism. We frequently arrange baptisms of adults, and this can happen at the same time as that of your children. If you are adult considering baptism Alex (Rector) or Judy (Assistant Curate) will be very happy to discuss this with you.

For more information please the Rector Rev’d Alex Bienfait (01580 291454), Rev'd Judy Darkins (01580 765475).