#56533 Baby Blessings

[vorpal blade]

I have been a membership clerk, a ward clerk, and a stake clerk. I agree with Marzipan's answer to this question.

I would just like to comment on the statement made in the question "I thought the blessing was to establish a church record." The clerk will establish a church record based on the blessing, but the clerk can create a church record without a blessing. A baby blessing isn't required, and there is actually no permanent record kept that the baby was ever blessed, except the certificate given to the parents. A copy of the certificate is kept in the ward for 1-3 years for audit purposes to check to see if the membership record was properly created. The permanent church record shows date of birth, place of birth, parents, and so forth, but nothing about who performed the blessing, if there was one.

As far as I can tell the only reason we have baby blessings is to fulfill this commandment, "Every member of the church of Christ having children is to bring them unto the elders before the church, who are to lay their hands upon them in the name of Jesus Christ, and bless them in his name" (D&C 20:70).

[Damasta]

In Mexico they were very eager about this. If an investigator brought a child to church under the age of ten, they wanted to give it a blessing. Oy.

[Gimgimno]

As a note to Damasta's comment--the oldest a child can be to receive a naming and a blessing is 7. Once they reach the age of accountability, they are no longer able to receive a "baby blessing" as many in the Church call it. Vorpal is right--the blessing itself isn't what's really important--but generally speaking, the only way to create a permanent Church record for someone age 8 or over is to have them baptized and confirmed. In the case of adoptions of children 8 of over--the baptism and confirmation must take place before they go to the temple and are sealed.