This October, a new project is launching in the Diocese,designed to help churches better connect with families who come to them forbaptism and help keep their promise to baptism parents, to welcome baptisedchildren and uphold them in their new lives in Christ.
Baptism Books takes the form of a monthly resource, which isdesigned to be fun and interactive for families on their faith journey. Eachmonth, a different secular book is suggested by email to the baptism families,along with a pdf sheet which explores how the book reflects something of God aswell as activities for the family to try and a prayer.
The resource was trialled by families earlier in the yearand had very positive feedback. Laura from All Saints Church in Sedgley tookpart in the trial with her two-and-a-half-year-old son, Thomas. She said:
We tried the Baptism Books resource over three months. Wewould read the suggested book with Thomas during his normal story time aftertea and use the sheet with the different activities over the following days.Thomas was a bit young for the prayers, but my husband and I used them to prayfor our family.
It was really nice to have a different topic each month andenough time to do the activities and talk about the theme together. Theresource was very simply written and was easy to pick up and use. Although someof the activities were more suitable for slightly older children, there wasstill plenty for us to do with Thomas and we were able to adapt some of theother bits. For example, we enjoyed going out and looking at different flowers,or just looking at Thomas various trains when we were exploring the theme thateveryone is different.
Its great that the books are all ones that this age groupreally enjoy, like Elmer and Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs. We were ableto find them quite easily in the library if we didnt already have them. It wasa good way of being able to talk about God and Jesus with Thomas more activelyand as a part of our daily life. I think it will definitely help children toget used to exploring and talking about the Christian faith. It also encouragesa love of books!
If your parish would like to get involved inusing the Baptism Books resources, please contact one of our Calling YoungDisciples Mission Enablers, Helen Laird: hlaird@cofe-worcester.org.uk.
