I went to my first christening the other Sunday.Other than my own baptism, I'd never been to one of these before. And it was quite a peculiar affair indeed.
First off, it wasn't in a church but in a members-only bar/club in East London. So loads of people drank their way through the while thing.
Secondly, though the other half and I turned up half an hour late, the christening was delayed by...get this...the West Ham vs Tottenham game that was going on that afternoon!
The celebrant had to wait for the match to finish before half the intended crowd turned up!
And when it did finally start, it was a strangely informal affair. The celebrant was an Archbishop of the episcopal church from Kent (nobody seemed to know what this meant so I'm not sure who had arranged for him to officiate.) He dressed up in his full purple robes for the occasion whilst young children of all ages roamed around the hall making as much noise as they wanted whilst the whole thing carried on.
By roamed, I mean that the little 'uns ran and crawled in front, behind and sometimes through the ceremony whilst it was going on with the archbishop (who apparently had five kids himself) carrying on just fine.
It was obvious that neither parents or God-parents of the little boy to be christened has stepped into a church in a long time. They looked on baffled. So, to ease the discomfort of the mainly West Ham partisan crowd, the celebrant got everyone to sing "I'm forever blowing bubbles" as the first hymn! (It's the West Ham theme tune.)
That's how bizarre the whole thing really was!!
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