We gather together this afternoon in celebration and in welcome.  We gather not only to celebrate this child’s presence among us, but also to celebrate the bonds that tie her to everyone here.  You are, no doubt, familiar with the saying that it takes a village to raise a child.  Well, you are that village.  [Parent’s names] are glad and grateful that you are here today to celebrate with them, but even more than that, they are glad and grateful that you will be with this family for the long haul, that you will be there for [child’s name] when [she/he/they] needs a listening ear or good advice, that you will be there to offer everything from the hugs and kisses on which babies survive to the compassionate distance that teenagers require.

We celebrate this community of love and support, and we welcome this new little person into our midst.  [child’s name], we welcome you into this family, your parents [and siblings, if any], who are simply thrilled that you are here.  We welcome you into this community of family and friends who receive you with eager arms.  And we welcome you into this amazing world, full of wonders and dangers, beauty and sadness and hope.

Welcome, friends, to this celebration that [child’s name] has joined our lives. We come to express our joy, and impress [his/her/their] name on our lips in gladness. But more than that, we are here as a pledge, joining in covenant to offer [child’s name] the life-long support of a loving family and community.

Antoine de St.-Exupéry writes: “I a house which becomes a home, one hands down and another takes up the heritage of mind and heart, laughter and tears, musings and deeds. Love, like a carefully loaded ship, crosses the gulf between the generations.” We come with our ship carefully loaded with the gifts that [child’s name] truly needs: ears to listen, arms to embrace, a world of experience to encourage her/his/their enquiring mind. We are blessed by her/his/their presence among us, and pray that our lives will be a blessing to her/him/them. 

Your children are not your children. They are the sons and the daughters of life’s longing for itself. They come through you, but not from you, and though they are with you they belong not to you. You may give them your love, but not their thought, for they have their own thoughts. You may house their bodies, but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams. You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you, for life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday. The Archer see the mark upon the path of the infinite, and bends you with might that the arrows may go swift and far. Let your bending in the Archer’s hand be for gladness.

— Kahlil Gibran

Children learn what they live.
If a child lives with criticism, she learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, she learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame, he learns to feel guilt.
If a child lives with tolerance, she learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement, he learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise, she learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, she learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance, he or she learns to find love in the world.

— Dorothy Law Notte

… we can never be born enough. we are human beings for whom birth is a supremely welcome mystery. the mystery of growing, the mystery which happens only and whenever we are faithful to ourselves. life for eternal us is now.

— ee cummings

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe,
A moment that will never be again…
And what do we teach our children?
We should say to each of them: do you know what you are?
You are a marvel.  You are unique.
In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you.
Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move.
You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven,
You have the capacity for anything.  Yes, you are a marvel.

— Pablo Casals

Reading for an Adopted Child

We did not plant you…
True.
But when the season is done
when the alternate prayers for sun and rain are counted
When the pain of weeding and the pride of watching are through
Then will we hold you high,
a shining sheaf above the thousand seed grown wild.
Not by our planting
but, by heaven, our harvest,
Our child.

— Source unknown

It is no simple task you take on as parents, but it is both wonderful and crucial.  And so I ask you:

Do you, [parent’s name], covenant together as a family with [child’s name], promising this child and one another boundless love and clear boundaries, a lifetime of listening carefully and speaking truthfully, of holding close when you can and letting go when you must? If so, say, “We do.”

[Parent’s names], to you as parents let me say this: In presenting your child at this service, you invite all of us to share some of the joy and responsibility that is yours as parents. You seek our support in your dedication to the task of fostering, with love and guidance, the fullest unfolding of the personality of your child.

Your task may not always be an easy one. The time may come when you will be called upon to sacrifice ambitions, deny yourselves pleasure, or set aside your own dreams so that your child may tread more surely the onward path of life. But you accept this service to another life, knowing that your own lives will be fuller and richer in consequence.

Do you now promise that, to the best of your human abilities, you will help this child to an appreciation of truth and beauty, uprightness of character, and love? If so, say, “We do.”

Friends, you bring your child to be recognized as a testimony to the universal mystery of ongoing human life. Will you endeavor to instruct [her/him/them] that [she/he/they] may be taught human love by feeling human love, taught justice by the laws that rule [her/his/their] days; taught wisdom by the way in which [she/he/they] lives, taught to love all people and serve them fair by seeing from [her/his/their] birth other children served with the same righteous, all-embracing care? If so, answer, “We will.”

The role of godparent is an important one, a recognition that children need multiple adults who care for them and love them, multiple adults to show them how to move with grace and kindness through the world.

Do you, [Godparent name(s)], accept the role of godparent, and covenant to offer this child your support and encouragement through the years to come, providing through your words and deeds the model of a life you would be proud to have this child follow? If so, say, “I do.”

[Name(s) of any additional people], [child’s name]’s parents have chosen you for a special role in this child’s life. They know that [she/he/they] will need the steady presence of cherished adults who can offer a new perspective, additional wisdom, a place to turn when the inevitable tensions of family life run high. Do you promise [child’s name] both kind words and truth-telling, acceptance of who [she/he/they] is and encouragement to continually grow? Do you covenant to be there for [her/him/them] not only through cuddly babyhood but also through prickly teenage years, offering a listening ear and a model of a life well-lived? If so, answer, “We do.”

The congregation reads responsively:

Leader:  This bright face is our future and our hope.

Community:  We pledge ourselves to nurture the rising of her light.

Leader: This reaching mind is our vision and our dream.

Community: We pledge ourselves to foster her learning, to listen and to challenge, to help her open new doors into the realm of the possible.

Leader: This strong and tender young person is our growth and our becoming.

Community: We pledge ourselves to learn from her, to love her and to build with her a community that will bring truth and hope and courage to a world which is always being made anew.

Leader:  It is our faith that each child born is one more redeemer. By this service of dedication we commit ourselves to the nurture of this child. Are you ready to dedicate yourselves to [child’s name]?

Community: We are prepared. We dedicate our minds and hearts to this child and to her/his parents.

Leader: Will you strive to love and cherish them in times of struggle as well as gladness?

Community: We will love and cherish them always.

Leader: We acknowledge the divine spark within each child.

Community: May we be worth guardians of this young life. May we build a community in which [she/he/they] will grow old surrounded by beauty, embraced by love, and cradled in the arms of peace.

— Rev. Rob Eller-Isaacs

All rise and join in saying:

As we contemplate the miracle of birth, as we renew in our hearts a sense of wonder and joy, may we be stirred to a fresh awareness of the sacredness of life and of the divine promise of childhood. May we so live that our children may acquire our best virtues and leave behind our worst failings. May we pass on the light of courage and compassion and the questing spirit, and may that light burn more brightly in this child than it has in us.

Leader to parents: What name do you give this child?

Parents respond with full name.

We welcome this child into this family, into this community, into this world which is full of beauty and wonder such as this.

[Child’s name], may you be blessed by water, by a mind fluid enough to ever seek new ground and new insights; a heart which understands the depths of human emotion; hands gentle as a running stream.  (Head, chest and hands are touched with water.)

May you be blessed by earth, by a mind unwavering in conviction in what is right and true; a heart steady and grounded in love; hands which are strong and firm in action for justice.  (Head, chest and hands are touched with a stone.)

May you be blessed by air, by a mind keen as the north wind, a heart strong as the wind off the ocean, hands as comforting as a cool breeze.  (Head, chest and hands are brushed with a feather.)

May you be blessed by fire, by a mind which lights the way to new understandings, a heart which burns with passion and compassion, hands enlivened by the spark of the creative.  (A candle is raised over head, chest and hands.)

May you be blessed by the Spirit, which moves through all beings—yours are the mind and heart and hands by which the spirit takes shape in the world.

Here, in the sight of the Holy and this sacred gathering of love, we welcome this child, naming [her/him/them] [child’s full name].  May [she/he/them] always know the love of this community and this day.

The leader can either hold the infant—placing the service on the table, or having someone hold the pages so it can be read—or have the parents or god-parents continue to hold the infant.

[Parents’ first names], by what name is this child known? (Parents give complete name of child; leader will have written name in advance in script.)

(Leader dips fingers in water and touches child’s forehead.)

[Child’s complete name], I touch your young brow with water from old nature’s infinite sky, water that touches every shore and nourishes every race of people. In so doing I dedicate your life and thought to the good of all human­kind and to your own true growing.

I also give you this flower, unique in all its natural beauty, separate and distinct from all other flowers found in creation, to express symbolically our hope that all your life long you will unfold and blossom just as you must, in all of your own unique and natural beauty.

(Leader then lays a hand on the child’s forehead.) May the blessings of an understanding heart, strength and integrity of purpose, and love received and given, be yours and remain with you as you go forward into ever fuller life. Amen.

May the blessing of the light be with you always, light without and light within. May the sun shine upon you and warm your heart until it glows like a great fire so that others may feel the warmth of it. And may the light of your eyes shine like two candle lights in a window at night, bidding the wanderer to come in out of the dark and the cold. And may the blessings of the rain be upon you, the sweet and tender rain; may it fall upon your spirit as when flowers spring up and fragrance fills the air. And may the blessings of the great rain wash you clean and fair, and may the storms always leave you stronger and more beautiful. And when the rains are over, may there be clear pools of water, made beautiful by the radiance of your light, as when a star shines, beautiful in the night, pointing the way for all of us.

— Irish Blessing

We have dedicated [child’s name]. May we also dedicate ourselves this day. May this occasion work its miracle in our hearts, that we may mold our lives more and more in accordance with the beauty, truth, goodness, and love we wish for the life of this child.

Hail the day on which this child, [child’s name], was born. Rejoice! Let us all sing and praise her that gave birth to a [son/daughter] for whom she longed. Greet this day with joy. Our hearts are glad.

— The Masai People