Number of Christenings on same day

[Mick Loney]

I saw this today, and wondered if it was a record:

On 17th June 1886, in Christ Church, Southwark, the vicar baptised 105 children in one day. They wouldn’t have had the usual baptism, because even if the vicar was on duty for 8 hours, it only allowed around 4 minutes per Baptism, so he must have set up a production line, doing multiple baptisms at once

What was so special about the date, for them all wanting their baptism that day, or was it a promotion by the vicar, offering a discount for bulk christenings?

BTW it was a Thursday!!

[AdrianBruce]

As I recollect from Sunday School, many years ago, a Baptism service is pretty much set up to do multiple baptisms in one service. The intro and outro are addressed to the whole congregation, but then there is (in programming terms) a loop for each child which starts with the priest saying to the (god)parents, "Name this child...", followed by "I baptise thee in the Name of..." That may be all that's required for each specific child - the rest is basically the same as for one child, just saying the one set of words but substituting "them" for "him" or "her". If it's not just two actions per child, it can't be much more.

Even so, 105 baptisms is a bit much. I'd have thought the water in the font would be getting a bit thick!

[Mick Loney]

Even so, 105 baptisms is a bit much. I'd have thought the water in the font would be getting a bit thick!

I was thinking more along the lines of it running out, unless an unusually large font