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The Common Room / Re: Rec'd into the Church
« on: Friday 27 August 10 11:59 BST (UK) »
I found this thread after wondering the same thing about what being 'received into the church' after baptism meant, having come across it in parish records. And then I realised that it applied to my own baptism.
When I was baptised, it was a private, family and friends only ceremony, held on a Sunday afternoon in the church, not during a church service. There was a girl in the same class as me at school who had been baptised during the church service on the same day in the morning! I don't know when I was 'received into the church' though, but I did attend Sunday school and choir, so I would always see the public baptisms. And I did sometimes see multiple baptisms where all the children in a family, from a newborn to a 10 year old, would be baptised - which of course is something you come across in historic parish records.
It may even be worth checking on an historic calendar to find out what day of the week the private baptism was held on. Often, of course, new borns in bad health were baptised at home, but other families might choose to have a private ceremony in the church. I don't know why I had a private one as all my brothers were baptised during a church service. But I suspect that people of quality might have had private baptisms, not necessarily on a Sunday, perhaps, to keep away from the hoi polloi!
I've only just started to look at parish records myself and it's incredible how busy the vicars and curates must have been. Ten baptisms in one day, from different families (so perhaps separate ceremonies, or did they form an orderly queue?), all those weddings and funerals.... If you read Juliet Barker's book about the Brontes, the number of ceremonies performed by their father, a vicar in the Anglican Church, is astounding. (sorry to veer slightly off topic there, but I find the historical contexts of these things very interesting).
When I was baptised, it was a private, family and friends only ceremony, held on a Sunday afternoon in the church, not during a church service. There was a girl in the same class as me at school who had been baptised during the church service on the same day in the morning! I don't know when I was 'received into the church' though, but I did attend Sunday school and choir, so I would always see the public baptisms. And I did sometimes see multiple baptisms where all the children in a family, from a newborn to a 10 year old, would be baptised - which of course is something you come across in historic parish records.
It may even be worth checking on an historic calendar to find out what day of the week the private baptism was held on. Often, of course, new borns in bad health were baptised at home, but other families might choose to have a private ceremony in the church. I don't know why I had a private one as all my brothers were baptised during a church service. But I suspect that people of quality might have had private baptisms, not necessarily on a Sunday, perhaps, to keep away from the hoi polloi!
I've only just started to look at parish records myself and it's incredible how busy the vicars and curates must have been. Ten baptisms in one day, from different families (so perhaps separate ceremonies, or did they form an orderly queue?), all those weddings and funerals.... If you read Juliet Barker's book about the Brontes, the number of ceremonies performed by their father, a vicar in the Anglican Church, is astounding. (sorry to veer slightly off topic there, but I find the historical contexts of these things very interesting).