Dedication Ceremonies

A baby is not like a picture that you hang on the wall and enjoy forever afterward. A baby is not even like a house which, once secured, must be kept up. or the roof will leak, the paint peel off, and the plumbing give out. A baby, more than anything else in the world, will grow and develop in accordance with what you do or do not do; in accordance with the devotion and intelligence, the courage and the patience you bring to the task of caring for it.
 
 
Although there is no legal obligation for you to do so, you are considering the process of naming your baby in a religious ceremony. You are responding to a tradition that has been a part of most cultures around the world, the tradition of recognizing your child before a fellowship of your friends and family.
 
 
For Unitarian Universalists, the term we use to describe this ceremony is "dedication." We do not use words or symbolic acts to wash away sin or to make the child a member of our religious community. Instead, we dedicate ourselves, as family, friends, and congregation, to the spiritual well-being of the child. We use the metaphor of a flower bud, which comes to us with inherent beauty, and will, we anticipate, open in time to yet greater beauty of character and person.
 
 
We view the dedication ceremony as a communal recognition of the child, of our responsibility toward the child, and of the new stage of life into which the parents have entered. It is a rite of passage in which the child formally receives its name and the parents and god-parents formally accept the responsibilities of parenthood, as witnessed by the gathered community.