Baptism is the 'joining ceremony' for the Christian Church.

When someone is baptised they become a member of God's family, a family made up of Christians from many different Churches, Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox.

Life is a journey and in a baptism we ask God to walk alongside a person in their life, turning their journey into a pilgrimage.

So you can think of a baptism as like getting ready for a new journey of life.

The service discussed here is the service for infants, but if an older person is getting baptised the service will be very similar - but they will answer for themselves rather than having their parents and godparents do it for them.  Each vicar will do the service in their own way, but the words you will say are usually the same and will be given to you on a card for the service - you don't have to remember it all!  Churches also provide prepartion in different ways, but all of them will include a run through the service so that you know what to expect.