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London: John Hunt, a newly qualified nurse, was
baptised at the age of five months at the parish church
of St Jude with St Aidin in Thornton Heath, south
London. As a school boy he decided he did not believe in
God and stopped going to Sunday school aged 11.
Now 56 and living in Croydon, he said he wanted parish
records amended to note he did not consent to the
baptism in 1953. He was told that his baptism cannot be
deleted because it is a matter of historical record. He
then secured a "de-baptism" certificate produced by the
National Secular Society (NSS), rejecting
"superstitions" or the idea of original sin.
It reads: "I reject all its creeds and other such
superstitions in particular the perfidious belief that
any baby needs to be cleansed of original sin." This
week the church backed down and said the entry would be
"corrected".
A representative of Southwark diocese told him: "I have
spoken to the Archdeacon of Croydon and he has
undertaken, in this particular case, to have it
cross-referenced with the baptismal entry and pasted
into the back fly-leaf of the relevant register at St
Jude's Church." Dr Hunt, a former software engineer,
said: "I am delighted that on this occasion the church
are going to do what they said they would do."
He added: "It's about time that some of us stood up to
be counted. I am hoping that others will follow my lead.
"It is important that we send a signal to the church and
to the Government that an increasing proportion of the
population don't place any faith in the various
churches.
"The fact that we have 26 bishops in the House of Lords
is an anachronism.” The NSS said an estimated 100,000
People had downloaded similar certificates from its
website over the past five years, producing mock
official versions and has had to order more parchment to
meet demand.
Terry Sanderson, the NSS president, last month said the
certificate was originally a "tongue in cheek" joke but
conceded that the procedure was now being taken serious
by a growing number of atheists.
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