Do Godparents need to be baptised?

[ClareC]

Or is it at the vicars discretion?

[snowboarder]

I think they do - hence I am a 'sponsor' (or sthg weird) rather than godmother to my niece...

[Belle]

no it's at vicar's discretion - our son has three, one of whom is def not baptised. Fortunately the vicar who christened him wasn't bothered.

[R11]

Officially, I also think yes. A friend of mine recently got baptised in order to become a godparent. However, some vicars will make exceptions or are just not thorough enough to check. I am not baptised but am a godparent twice over although I got slightly special treatment in one case as my dad is a vicar and, rightly or wrongly, that was deemed to be enough!

[ClareC]

Thanks all, Belle, was your son christened locally?

We have chosen our godparents but 2 of 3 are not baptised! That said one of the non baptised one's regularly goes to church and the other was married in a church but is not so regular church goer - albeit has fantastic morals is a lovely person and would make a wonderful godparent.

I don't want "second choice" godparents but my local church have said godparents must be baptised :-(

Intend to chat with the vicar about it but wanted to find out the position first....

Beginning to think having our daughter christened is a headache!!! We have a family consisting of devout Roman Catholic's, CofE, Methodist and Agnostic!!!!

[Bellenden Jo]

When I got my two baptised the Godparents were supposed to be confirmed as well as baptised themselves, which left me with very little choice! In the end the vicar excepted baptised only, but only after a bit of pleading on my part! We're CofE.

[Belle]

if it was me I'd find a way to go with the people you've chosen - would you consider a different church maybe? we were lucky in that the vicar was a friend, and the christening was actually up in St Bride's on Fleet Street. However I'm godmother to my friend's little girl and that was a CofE church in Camberwell - I was christened but could find out if it actually came up whether or not I was? Might be worth ringing round.

we were also married in a church despite the fact that my husband wasn't christened (is Jewish). The vicar just didn't care (but that was in Scotland so not much help!). So in my experience it's a case of some vicars being more liberal than others.

[ClareC]

I will chat with the vicar and see what the position is.

The next closest church is the Village one which is equidistant from us as our parish CofE church. Not sure they will be more lenient though.

I suppose the other option would be to have her christened out in Kent (where I grew up and the vicar has kmown me years so potentially is more likely to be lenient despite being the wrong parish).

Completely agree, my main objective is to have my chosen godparents!

[Moos]

Our church's rules are that g'parents need to be both baptised and confirmed to be entered into the register as g'parents. However, non-official g'parents were also welcomed at the ceremony, and the vicar was very nice about it - just explained that he was unable to register them because it was against the rules. I'd have thought that non-baptised, non-confirmed g'parents wouldn't be all that bothered about whether they go in the register anyway?

[millie42]

Are you talking about baptism as a catholic or as part of the CofE?

At our church (we are RCs by the way) the rule is that at least one god parent must be baptised a catholic and a practising catholic.

Its all very random so good luck.

[nylonmeals]

If your church is strict you can always ask for your non-baptised friends who you want to be godparents to be classified as witnesses. During the service they do the same as the godparents I believe but they are entered into church books as witness and not godparent but to all intent and purpose for your little child they are godparents.

[ClareC]

My partner was brought up RC and I am CofE. We plan to have our daughter christened CofE. My friend is going to be christened so she can be godmother. I plan to speak to the vicar about my brother in law, seems rather hypocritical for the church to accept him to there Sunday service most weeks yet not allow him to be a godparent!