Children and Church

The Place of Children in the Church

Just as the birth of children into our human families is a sign of their life and growth, the presence of children in the Church is also a sign of life and growth. It reflects on the continuing relevance of the Church, in spite of the increasing secularisation of our age.

Children are both welcome in the Church, and necessary to its ongoing life.  Where children are not in evidence in a church, it quickly loses life and heart.  Humanly speaking, the Church exists as an institution that is in ongoing process. Generations are born and die, but the Church continues to worship God because through its long history the older generation has always passed on to the younger its duties of love and devotion towards God and the world, and the younger generation has taken up the responsibilities passed on to it.

It is therefore a joyous thing when people who have become parents of young children bring them to Church for baptism and confess anew their faith in God, and are prepared to make a series of solemn vows before God and his people to the effect that they will permit their children to gain a knowledge of God and of the Christian faith in their formative years.

The congregations of Falkland and Freuchie are happy to share in these solemn moments with the parents, and in our Sunday Schools to provide a context in which a child's knowledge of God can be gained and nurtured.  We also have a duty to make sure that those who present their children for baptism understand the purpose and meaning of the sacrament, and do not do so simply out of superstition or social motive.

Baptism has always been the rite of entry into the Christian Church.  As such, it is not to be associated simply with birth, and the need to celebrate the arrival of a new baby into the human family.  The New Testament tells us how on the day of Pentecost when the Church was begun, the first converts to the faith were baptised by the disciples of Jesus.  In baptism they were immersed in water, which symbolised not only their being cleansed from sin but their dying with Christ and rising to new life - the life of faith - with him.

These first Christians were of course already adult at the time of their conversion to Christianity, and some of them had previously been Jews while others were pagans. As the Church grew up, however, it became the accepted practise more or less universally to baptise the children of believers soon after their birth, although new converts were still baptised as adults.  In presenting their children to be baptised, Christian parents were asked to promise to bring their children up in the faith and to teach them concerning the love of God as it is revealed to us in the life and death and resurrection life of Jesus Christ so that in due course their children would grow up to confirm the promises formerly made on their behalf by their parents.

Today, baptism is still an essential prerequisite for membership of the Christian Church, and parents still make very solemn promises to bring up their children to know the Christian faith.  The Church recognises that it too has a part to play and seeks to help parents to keep their promises by providing Christian education in the Sunday School.  When you present your child for baptism, you ought to be sure that you really do intend to keep the promises you make.  If you do not intend to take your promises seriously, and sadly many people who present their children for baptism do not make any real attempt to keep them, you should ask yourself whether it is right to make promises before God that you have no intention of keeping.

In the baptismal service, you are required to affirm your intention to bring up your child in the Christian faith, and also to confess your own faith, in these terms:

The Church responds to your promises by promising in its turn to provide Christian education for your children. At Falkland and Freuchie, we attempt to fulfil this obligation by providing a Creche to which parents can bring children under the age of three, and Sunday School for those who are aged three and over.

A Sunday School is meets each week at Falkland at 10.00 am and at Freuchie at 11.30 am.  There is no formal Sunday School in either church between mid June and the end of August.