Aleina's Baptism Preparation - Part 1

At first, we're not fully decided to where we can baptize our baby Aleina. In Filipino tradition, we were told (by my grandmother) that if a baby needs to travel, s/he should be baptise first. This is one consideration we took to make our decision that our precious baby Aleina will be baptised here in Singapore coz we've already set our vacation this coming December - to celebrate christmas and new year in the Philippines - with our respective family.

Before you've move which food, theme and other more party planning details, first you need to finalize the following first:

• Church
• Date & Time
• Venue

First things first, we need to secure to where we can register Aleina for her baptism. Then other planning should be followed like venue, food, decorations, give aways, etc.

St Anne Church, Sengkang East Way

Church: Scouting around, searching the internet, with the help of google, I've found quite a number of church to where we can have the ceremony. Most of them required the following:

• Marriage Certificate of the child's parent issued by the church
• Birth certificate of the infant/baby
• Child's Godparents (1 female and/or 1 male). Child's sponsor/s should provide their baptismal and confirmation certificates.
• Attendance for preparatory session is compulsory for parents and godparents.
• Should register the baby at least 2 weeks before the baptism

 First thing I've inquired was Sacred Heart Church, near Dobhy Ghaut mrt. I've been here in this church once, during my nephew's baptism about 4yrs ago. As I know, that the church doesn't have much requirement for baptism compare with other churches. I've called the church's office to make inquiries but unfortunately we cannot proceed with this church for the following reasons:

                (1) I should register my church near my place

                (2) If we were regularly attending mass to that church, we will be allowed.

                Btw, my sister managed to have her son to be baptized here even though they only had a marriage certificate which is not issued by the church - as they only have civil wedding. According to her, they also didn't have to undergo a prepatory session, which is more I like :).

                So moving forward, I think I've got no choice but to register in St. Anne's church. St. Anne's is quite strict with their requirements; I was having difficulty to get baptism and confirmation certificates of at least 1 godparents we've chosen. At least, we're still lucky that Albert's colleague, Aleina's godfather, who managed to gave us his certificates so we've finalized the venue, date and time for our infant's Baptism.

   

Date and Time: St Anne church only have schedule for Infant Baptism every last Sunday of the (even) months. So, we've only left with 2 options: Oct 28 and December 23. We choose Oct 28 @ 11am coz we've assume that by Dec 23, we might have been flown to Philippines for our vacation.

   

Reception: Just right in time, after we've finalized the church, the date and time, we're now discussing to where will be our reception after the baptism ceremony. Our initial plan was to have the reception at The Studio but since the church is near our place, so we've decided to hold it in our flat in Sengkang.