Baptisms, Dedications & Confirmations

Good News!

We are delighted you are inquiring about Baptism at All Saints’ Church. As the parish church, we are here for you and your family as you mark important events in your life. A baptism is an act of welcoming a new person into the family of the church, and so Baptisms take place within the context of the main Sunday Parish Eucharist.

God calls us each by name and knows us intimately, having created us and loved us before we were born. It is therefore important to us that, while your Baptism is part of the weekly Sunday service, your experience is one which is personalised. It is, therefore, our normal practice to have children’s Baptisms done with one family on any given Sunday. We also try to make the service that day focussed around your Baptism.

Infant Baptism

With infants, or children, the service of Baptism gives us the opportunity to share with you in the joy of the gift of children and to thank God for them. Read on to learn more about baptism at All Saints Church.

Adult Baptism

Coming to the decision as an adult to be baptized is a significant one and is time of celebration for the Church as you take this important step in your faith. Normally adults are baptised as part of the Easter celebrations or at the same time as confirmation. If you wish to be baptized as an adult the best thing is to discuss this with the priest.

When can I have a Baptism?

Baptisms at All Saints’ take place throughout the year during our Sunday 10am Service; which Sunday depends on what other events are happening in the life of All Saints’. The 10am Parish Eucharist is the main gathering of the Church family in the parish of Child’s Hill and therefore it is important that Baptism – as an initiation into the family of the Church – is part of that gathering, so that we can celebrate with you and welcome the newly baptized into communion with all the saints.

Who can I ask to be a Godparent?

Godparents make promises on behalf of themselves and their godchild, to pray for and support their godchild as they grow in the Christian faith. Because the role involves passing on faith to the godchild, a godparent should be a practising Christian and is required to have been Baptized. Close friends who you wish to have a similar role but are not baptized may come and make the same promises, but will not be listed as godparents. There is no upper limit to the number of godparents a child may have but most children have between two and four.

How do we prepare for Baptism?

It is important to think through what Baptism is before it takes place. To better understand what it means to follow Jesus we encourage you to come to the weekly Parish Eucharist. In the week leading up to the Baptism, we will visit you to go through the service and answer any questions you might have about Baptism.

What happens in the service?

The Baptism service contains rich symbolism of the Christian faith. We are anointed with the sign of the cross,
reminding us of Christ’s death for us. We are ‘born again’ in the water of Baptism, dying to sin and being raised to a new life in Christ. As a sign of that new life, we receive a lighted candle, to remind us that the light of Christ always conquers the darkness of evil. Everyone who is baptized walks in that light for the rest of their lives. In response to the gift of Baptism, those who are being baptized (or their parents if they are unable to answer for themselves) make declarations that they will follow Jesus. Those being baptized will be prayed for. As explained, this all happens in the midst of the Parish Eucharist – where the Church family comes together to share a ritual meal, remembering the last supper which Jesus had with his followers.

How do I arrange a Baptism?

If you would like to be baptized or have your child baptized, then please come along to our 10am Service (Parish Eucharist) on a Sunday. This gives you a chance to experience the service before signing up to have the Baptism. After the service speak to the Priest who will be able to complete the necessary forms with you. If you come with dates in mind, then we will be able to get back to you and confirm the date for your Baptism.

What is the difference between a Baptism and a Christening?

Christening and Baptism are two different words which effectively mean the same thing. During a christening, you or your child will be baptized with water. It’s the start of an amazing journey of faith for your child and a special day for all your friends and family. Baptism is a deepening of your ongoing relationship with God. It is a celebration of the gift of life, the claiming of God’s promises for us and initiation as full members of the Church.

In the beginning of Christianity – and in many places of the world still today – being ‘marked for Christ’ put people at risk of punishment by those who wanted to see Christianity stamped out. Being Baptized made you stand out, as someone who lived differently, who had chosen to follow Jesus Christ in all areas of their life.

During a Baptism, parents and godparents declare their faith, the faith into which they promise to bring up their children. They give thanks for this great gift of a child, committing to teach a child about Jesus Christ and the love of God which he revealed. All those at the service promise to support and pray for those who are baptized. At All Saints’ we take this commitment seriously and promise to support you in helping your child grow in faith and participate in the Christian community, and we will stay in touch with you to help you.

How much does it cost?

Baptism within the Church of England is entirely free. This reflects the fact that it is a gift of God’s Grace, freely given to us, and there is nothing we can do to earn it.

There are opportunities though, to make the day special by sponsoring flowers, by having a personalised Order of Service printed or providing an in church reception for after the service. We ask you to cover the costs of these items by a special donation to All Saints’ Church. They are not sold services and represent actual costs of provision so no profit is made.

Orders of Service (80 copies) £50.00
Flower Pedastals £40.00
Flower Ring on Paschal Candle £20.00
Coffee/tea/biscuit reception £20.00
Fizz Reception (6 bottles) £50.00

All Saints’ Church Child’s Hill Logo
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Notice

Privacy Notice – General

Your personal data – what is it?

“Personal data” is any information about a living individual which allows them to be identified from that data (for example a name, photographs, videos, email address, or address). Identification can be by the information alone or in conjunction with any other information. The processing of personal data is governed by the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) and other legislation relating to personal data and rights such as the Human Rights Act 1998.

Who are we?

This Privacy Notice is provided to you by the Parochial Church Council (PCC) of All Saints’ Child’s Hill which is the data controller for your data.

The Church of England is made up of a number of different organisations and office-holders who work together to deliver the Church’s mission in each community. The PCC works together with:

  • the incumbent of the parish (that is, our priest-in-charge);
  • the bishops of the Diocese of London; and
  • the London Diocesan Fund, which is responsible for the financial and administrative
    arrangements for the Diocese of London.

As the Church is made up of all of these persons and organisations working together, we may need to share personal data we hold with them so that they can carry out their responsibilities to the Church and our community. The organisations referred to above are joint data controllers. This means we are all responsible to you for how we process your data.

Each of the data controllers have their own tasks within the Church and a description of what data is processed and for what purpose is set out in this Privacy Notice. This Privacy Notice is sent to you by the PCC on our own behalf and on behalf of each of these data controllers. In the rest of this Privacy Notice, we use the word “we” to refer to each data controller, as appropriate.

What data do the data controllers listed above process?

They will process some or all of the following where necessary to perform their tasks:

  • Names, titles, and aliases, photographs;
  • Contact details such as telephone numbers, addresses, and email addresses;
  • Where they are relevant to our mission, or where you provide them to us, we may process
    demographic information such as gender, age, date of birth, marital status, nationality, education/work histories, academic/professional qualifications, hobbies, family composition, and dependants;
  • Where you make donations or pay for activities such as use of a church hall, financial identifiers such as bank account numbers, payment card numbers, payment/transaction identifiers, policy numbers, and claim numbers;
  • The data we process is likely to constitute sensitive personal data because, as a church, the fact that we process your data at all may be suggestive of your religious beliefs. Where you provide this information, we may also process other categories of sensitive personal data: racial or ethnic origin, sex life, mental and physical health, details of injuries, medication/treatment received, political beliefs, labour union affiliation, genetic data, biometric data, data concerning sexual orientation and criminal records, fines and other similar judicial records.

How do we process your personal data?

The data controllers will comply with their legal obligations to keep personal data up to date; to store and destroy it securely; to not collect or retain excessive amounts of data; to keep personal data secure, and to protect personal data from loss, misuse, unauthorised access and disclosure and to ensure that appropriate technical measures are in place to protect personal data.

We use your personal data for some or all of the following purposes:

  • To enable us to meet all legal and statutory obligations (which include maintaining and publishing our electoral roll in accordance with the Church Representation Rules);
  • To carry out comprehensive safeguarding procedures (including due diligence and complaints handling) in accordance with best safeguarding practice from time to time with the aim of ensuring that all children and adults-at-risk are provided with safe environments;
  • To minister to you and provide you with pastoral and spiritual care (such as visiting you when you are gravely ill or bereaved) and to organise and perform ecclesiastical services for you, such as baptisms, confirmations, weddings and funerals;
  • To deliver the Church’s mission to our community, and to carry out any other voluntary or charitable activities for the benefit of the public as provided for in the constitution and statutory framework of each data controller;
  • To administer the parish, deanery, archdeaconry and diocesan membership records;
  • To fundraise and promote the interests of the Church and charity;
  • To maintain our own accounts and records;
  • To process a donation that you have made (including Gift Aid information);
  • To seek your views or comments;
  • To notify you of changes to our services, events and role holders;
  • To send you communications which you have requested and that may be of interest to you. These may include information about campaigns, appeals, other fundraising activities;
  • To process a grant or application for a role;
  • To enable us to provide a voluntary service for the benefit of the public in a particular geographical
    area as specified in our constitution;
  • Our processing also includes the use of automated systems when you visit our website including cookies to help improve your experience when browsing our website and personal identifiers from your browsing history to enable us to assess the popularity of the webpages on our website, further information about our use of cookies is available on our website (https://www.allsaintschildshill.com/cookie-policy/)
  • Our processing also includes the use of CCTV systems for the prevention and prosecution of crime.

What is the legal basis for processing your personal data?

Most of our data is processed because it is necessary for our legitimate interests, or the legitimate interests of a third party (such as another organisation in the Church of England). An example of this would be our safeguarding work to protect children and adults at risk. We will always take into account your interests, rights and freedoms.

Some of our processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation. For example, we are required by the Church Representation Rules to administer and publish the electoral roll, and under Canon Law to announce forthcoming weddings by means of the publication of banns.

We may also process data if it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, or to take steps to enter into a contract. An example of this would be processing your data in connection with the hire of church facilities.

Religious organisations are also permitted to process information about your religious beliefs to administer membership or contact details.

Where your information is used other than in accordance with one of these legal bases, we will first obtain your consent to that use.

Sharing your personal data

Your personal data will be treated as strictly confidential. It will only be shared with third parties where it is necessary for the performance of our tasks or where you first give us your prior consent. It is likely that we will need to share your data with some or all of the following (but only where necessary):

  • The appropriate bodies of the Church of England including the other data controllers;
  • Our agents, servants and contractors. For example, we may ask a commercial provider to send out newsletters on our behalf, or to maintain our database software;
  • Other clergy or lay persons nominated or licensed by the bishops of the Diocese of London to support the mission of the Church in our parish. For example, our clergy are supported by our area dean and archdeacon, who may provide confidential mentoring and pastoral support. Assistant or temporary ministers, including curates, deacons, licensed lay ministers, commissioned lay ministers or persons with Bishop’s Permissions may participate in our mission in support of our regular clergy;
  • Other persons or organisations operating within the Diocese of London including, where relevant, the London Diocesan Board for Schools and Subsidiary Bodies;
  • On occasion, other churches with which we are carrying out joint events or activities.

How long do we keep your personal data?

We will keep some records permanently if we are legally required to do so. We may keep some other records for an extended period of time. For example, it is current best practice to keep financial records for a minimum period of 7 years to support HMRC audits. In general, we will endeavour to keep data only for as long as we need it. This means that we may delete it when it is no longer needed.

Your rights and your personal data

You have the following rights with respect to your personal data:

When exercising any of the rights listed below, in order to process your request, we may need to verify your identity for your security. In such cases we will need you to respond with proof of your identity before you can exercise these rights.

  1. The right to access information we hold on you
    • At any point you can contact us to request the information we hold on you as well as why we have that information, who has access to the information and where we obtained the
      information from. Once we have received your request we will respond within one month.
    • There are no fees or charges for the first request but additional requests for the same data may be subject to an administrative fee .
  1. The right to correct and update the information we hold on you
    • If the data we hold on you is out of date, incomplete or incorrect, you can inform us and your data will be updated.
  1. The right to have your information erased
    • If you feel that we should no longer be using your data or that we are illegally using your data, you can request that we erase the data we hold.
    • When we receive your request we will confirm whether the data has been deleted or the reason why it cannot be deleted (for example because we need it for our legitimate interests or regulatory purpose(s)).
  1. The right to object to processing of your data
    • You have the right to request that we stop processing your data. Upon receiving the request we will contact you and let you know if we are able to comply or if we have legitimate grounds to continue to process your data. Even after you exercise your right to object, we may continue to hold your data to comply with your other rights or to bring or defend legal claims.
  1. The right to data portability
    • You have the right to request that we transfer some of your data to another controller. We will comply with your request, where it is feasible to do so, within one month of receiving your request.
  1. The right to withdraw your consent to the processing at any time for any processing of data to which consent was sought.
    • You can withdraw your consent easily by telephone, email, or by post (see Contact Details below).
  1. The right to object to the processing of personal data where applicable.
  2. The right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Transfer of Data Abroad

Any electronic personal data transferred to countries or territories outside the EU will only be placed on systems complying with measures giving equivalent protection of personal rights either through international agreements or contracts approved by the European Union. Our website is also accessible from overseas so on occasion some personal data (for example in a newsletter) may be accessed from overseas.

Further processing

If we wish to use your personal data for a new purpose, not covered by this Notice, then we will provide you with a new notice explaining this new use prior to commencing the processing and setting out the relevant purposes and processing conditions. Where and whenever necessary, we will seek your prior consent to the new processing.

Contact Details

Please contact us if you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the information we hold about you or to exercise all relevant rights, queries or complaints at:

The Data Controller,
All Saints’ Church
Church Walk, Child’s Hill
London, NW2 2TJ
Email: [email protected]

You can contact the Information Commissioners Office on 0303 123 1113 or via email https://ico.org.uk/global/contact-us/email/ or at the Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

If you have any question regarding our privacy policy, please contact us.