Christening

THERE ARE THREE THINGS THAT HAPPEN AT A CHRISTENING SERVICE

1. THE SIGNING OF A CROSS 

The vicar will draw the sign of the cross on the forehead of the child to be baptised

What does it mean?

As parents you are saying that you want your child to belong to God. You allow God to mark your child, in the same way that a shepherd might mark sheep in their flock. 

And we use the shape of a cross to mark us. 

The cross is a reminder of  the terrible things that human sin - our pride and fear and rebellion against God - can make us do. It is sin which means that we nail a person to a piece of wood and then watch them slowly die in agony, making fun of them. That is extreme, but the cross reminds us that there is darkness inside each of us, and we need God to both forgive us and set us free from the evil we don't want to do but do do. 

The cross is a reminder of the love of God: because Jesus chose to die on the cross. He never gave in to sin. He always trusted and obeyed God- a reminder of the love of God, because Jesus came to die for us on the cross. A reminder of of human sin because