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Update 46 page 15.

In Update 46:
Parents hear?
Web wanderings
Dear Archbishop
Waters converge
Videos and prep
Andrewes
Of godparents

Of godparents

John Hartley (editor).

Those who suggest the Church of England has no right to refuse to baptise perhaps ought to read their Canons on godparents with more care. Far from obliging the church to baptize, they seem to make it very hard for many babies!

Canon B22(3) puts responsibilities on both parents and godparents, as set out in the baptism service. The BCP is pretty blunt about these: "Ye are to take care that this child be brought to the bishop to be confirmed by him". The ASB and CW say the same rather less abruptly: "As they grow up they will need the help of the Christian community, so that they ... in due course come to confirmation."

Confirmation is making personally the statements of faith made on one's behalf if one was baptized in infancy. Some (e.g. Christopher Wansey) maintain that no-one can make these statements on behalf of another, and therefore no infant can be baptized. This clearly isn't what the BCP infant baptism service means, or there wouldn't be one! So Canon B23 sets out who is qualified for such a responsibility.

Godparents should be confirmed (#4), and must be qualified for their task in two ways (#2). "By their care for the children committed to their charge" means they need to be sufficiently well-connected to the family to be able genuinely to exercise a ministry of care. It isn't enough for a church to provide a member of the congregation who, it is hoped, might become an 'honorary uncle' to the child - the godparent needs to be already an honorary uncle!

And "by the example of their own godly living" means they have to be active committed Christians within the church fellowship. Maybe not the child's parish church, of course; maybe not even the Church of England, because the minister has the power to dispense with the requirement of confirmation (this clause was introduced specifically to allow non-conformists who didn't believe in episcopal confirmation to serve as godparents). But definitely active and committed somewhere.

Anyone can be a parent, but Canon B23(2) says that godparents must be people who can deliver in these two ways. Do most families in our land have three close friends who are also committed Christians? Do they even have three close friends who are churchgoers?

Our goal, of course, is to give them many such friends, but if they keep their distance from the active church the conclusion seems inescapable, and casts a new light on the very specific words used in Canon B 22 (4).

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This web page was last updated on 24th March 2004.