How to be a godparent

Miley Cyrus has Dolly Parton, two Beckham children can rely on Elton John, 33 people can give King Charles a call if they need to. What do they all have in common? Dolly, Elton and the king are all godparents.

Whether you yourself have your own clutch of children or you are gloriously child-free, you might be asked to be a godparent by one of your friends or family. It could be that you are already an experienced godparent, managing almost as many children as Charles III; you might have just been approached to fill the role for the first time. So what does it mean to be a godparent?

Before we get into some ideas about ‘how’, let’s just cover the ‘what’. Your godchild’s parents will have decided to have a baptism, christening or dedication. There’s no real difference between baptism and christening – the baptism part is when the child has water poured or wiped on their head (older children or adults might be completely submersed in water). Whatever the word, the service is a time when children “are welcomed into the family of the church”. It also marks the start of a lifetime of discovery about the Christian faith and how life-changing that can be” (according to the Church of England website).

If you’re going to a dedication, then the experience will be a little different. There is no baptism element – if the parents have opted for a dedication, they have probably decided to let their child choose for themselves if they want to make the statement of baptism when they are old enough to understand what that is. The dedication service gives thanks to God for the gift of the child.