Oliver Edmund Chapman Longley

Congratulations to Oliver on his Christening. Here are some pictures of young Oliver and his proud parents and Godparents! Click here.

If you have been to a great Christening, send us a photo and tell us about it! Click here

A Polyglottal Christening in Salzburg

Johanna, fascinated by the flickering of the christening candle (a tradition here) stopped crying at last, and eventually fell asleep in her Godfather's arms, duly eliciting his lifelong gratitude, and affection. He brought along a lump of clay with him to the christening, as a symbol of an unformed life, and his intentions to do his best to help mould it.

After that short speech, we all said "prost" and settled down to a rousing hour of Irish jigs played on a harp and folksongs (that I hadn't heard for years) sung by a classical contralto (there is no shortage of musicians in Salzburg - and they can turn their hand to anything!). We also had a couple of Kashmiri mountain songs sung by one of the guests. The festivities were held in the Franz Xavier Gruber house where he (the composer of Silent Night) lived whilst head of the church choir in Hallein.

If you have been to a great Christening, send us a photo and tell us about it! Click here

Well just fancy that!

Jesus is my Godfather!
At a recent celebrity Christening, one of the Godfathers was that fine actor Robert Powell who played the part of Jesus of Nazareth so convincingly that still, for many people, he is the face of Jesus. When it came to the part of the service for the Godparents to make their vows, the Celebrant turned to ask "Do you turn to Christ?" and was confronted by 'Jesus' himself saying "I do"! Surely Mr Powell will make the perfect Godfather.

Vicar's Precautions
A Chaplain informs us that she has perfected the technique required whilst taking a Christening or Baptism. After much experience she has found it necessary to remove all jewellery such as ear rings, crucifixes and even glasses lest the little treasure who is being Christened grabs the items during the ceremony. After a smug period of successful Christenings, we have to relate that one baby managed to grab hold of her 'dog collar' which he ripped off completely before waving it triumphantly at the congregation.

Fonts
It is very tricky to find a good picture of a nice font. We spent hours trawling the internet for a picture to put on this site in the top left corner. A couple of searches looked most promising with around 40,000 good matches - there must be at least one good one in there. There were a few interesting ones but I think we will stick to Arial and Helvetica sans serif! We are still looking!

If you have a story about your Christening/Baptism, we would love to hear it. Please e-mail it to us Click Here

More Who is Whose!

Round-the-world yachtsman Manley Hopkinson is Godfather to Amelia Trim even though he was on a yacht 4,000 miles away on the equator at the time of her christening. Amelia's father was so keen for him to be a godfather that he set up a video link over which Mr Hopkinson said the appropriate responses.

Back to top

With godparents like these, who needs friends!

Damien Hirst's godmother Margaret Walsh, a painter herself, recently went on record with her view that Damien's work is "a load of rubbish. I'm not sure if Damien knows what I think but I have hinted my views in letters to him and anyway, why should he care? He's raking it in with all that idiotic stuff!" (Well, that'll serve him right for all those missed thank you letters!)

Diane Abbott, the left-wing Labour MP for Hackney North and the first black woman MP, chose the disgraced right-winger now evangelist Christian, Jonathan Aitken as godfather for her son, James.

In 1995 Lord Glenconner's daughter-in-law, Tessa Tennant, announced that she was sacking her son Euan's godfather, the political lobbyist Andrew Gifford, from the role. They had fallen out over a proposed super-quarry in the Western Isles.

Back to top