Baptisms

1) Baptisms may take place throughout the whole year, except during Holy Week and at Christmas (unless special permission has been given);

2) The Birth Certificate of the person to be baptised must be produced on the day of the Baptism;

3) The person acting as Godparent must be a member of the Orthodox Church in good standing, and must be conscious of the Godparent’s obligations and responsibilities.

RECEIVING NON-ORTHODOX INTO THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

Those who belong to a denomination that baptises with water in the name of the Trinity and who wish to become Orthodox are received into the Orthodox Church by chrismation. Members of other Christian denominations are received by baptism.

Those who wish to be received into the Orthodox Church should first undergo a period of instruction in the Orthodox Faith and Practice.

Orthodox who apostatize, should they choose to return to the Orthodox Church, are received again by chrismation.

St Diadochos of Photiki on Baptism

From the instant we are baptized, grace is hidden in the depths of the intellect, concealing its presence even from the perception of the intellect itself. When someone begins, however, to love God with full resolve, then in a mysterious way, by means of intellectual perception, grace communicates something of its riches to his soul …For as the soul advances, divine grace more and more reveals itself to the intellect.