Cumberland Council to offer baby naming ceremonies amidst falling baptisms

CUMBERLAND Council is looking to capitalise on the falling number of Church of England baptisms with its secular baby naming ceremonies.

Across the UK there were 67,800 baptisms in 2023, down from more than 139,000 10 years previously.

Cumberland Council and the previous city council authority have offered their non-religious baby naming ceremonies since before the pandemic and are hoping to build on their popularity.

A naming ceremony is a modern, non-religious alternative to a christening which is ‘completely personalised’ to the family, according to Cumberland Council’s ceremonies and income generation service lead, Alyssia Ashurst.

“The event would be held in a venue that’s not religious so potentially at the registry office or if you wanted to hold it in a hotel or a social club or a village hall we could come out and attend,” she said.

“We work with the parents to kind of make a special script that’s personalized to that family and to that child, and instead of having godparents, which you would have in a christening, you would have special guardians.

“It’s just an opportunity to mark the birth of the child, welcome their arrival into the family, and celebrate really with a ceremony and officially announce them to the world.”

The ceremony is being advertised as an alternative to religion in an ever-changing, secular world.

“People aren’t always religious, and I think in the past they maybe felt pressured to have a christening due to past parents’ or grandparents’ beliefs,” said Ms Ashurst.

Read more: Hayton Wood path step closer to appearing on map after legal battle

“There wasn’t anything else really out there that you could do to celebrate the birth of a child, whereas now a naming ceremony, it does offer you that alternative.

“It can kind of solve an issue where if the parents have different religious beliefs or they can’t agree which church to baptize the child in, the ceremony is quite a nice alternative because there are no religious connotations there.”

Other tailored ceremonies that are offered by Cumberland Council include adoption ceremonies and ‘family blending ceremonies’.

Anybody who is interested in a special, personised ceremony should contact the ceremonies team on 0300 373 3730.