“EVERYONE wants to hold your new baby. And everywhere you go, people turn and smile because there’s nothing like a newborn to stir hope and promise.”

In the church, we celebrate our gratitude for this new life with the sacrament of baptism, the single rite of initiation into the Christian community. A sacrament is a holy act – a ritual of our faith. It says that God’s love surrounds us from the moment we’re born and continues throughout the course of our lives.

Pledge of Support

At St. Andrew’s United Church, baptism takes place during a regular Sunday service. When children are baptized, their parents and godparents make promises before God and the entire congregation to raise them in the Christian faith. Adults seeking baptism make the promises themselves. It’s a significant commitment to bring a child to church every Sunday, so during a baptism, the congregation also pledges to support parents and their children, as well as to help with children’s Christian education.

All Ages

Baptism is one of two sacraments in the United Church of Canada (the other one is Communion). It uses water as a symbolic cleansing that signifies the acceptance of new life within the church family. We believe the gift of God’s love doesn’t depend on our ability to understand it, so we baptize people as infants right up through adulthood. Baptism is not a requirement for God’s love, however, nor is it a magic charm for life. The United Church believes people who die without baptism are in no way condemned, lost, or damned.

Baptism & Renewal of Baptismal Faith

Here at St. Andrew’s United Church, we celebrate baptism and the renewal of baptismal faith regularly. Baptism in the United Church is recognized by all denominations of the Christian church that practice infant baptism. Similarly, if people have already been baptized in another church, the United Church recognizes their baptism and welcomes them.