A sponsor stands with you at the font, vouches for you before the Church, and promises to help you live as an Orthodox Christian for the rest of your life.
Being a sponsor isn’t like being a bridesmaid or groomsman where your job ends when the service does.
At Your Baptism or Chrismation
Your sponsor is there physically beside you. If you’re being baptized, they’ll hold you (or stand with you if you’re an adult). For an infant, the sponsor makes the renunciations and recites the Creed on the child’s behalf. An adult says them in person. This goes back to the early Church when sponsors vouched for adult converts, guaranteeing to the bishop that this person was serious and understood what they were getting into. The sponsor was saying, “I know this person. They’re ready. I’ll make sure they follow through.”
That’s still what’s happening. Your sponsor is vouching for you and committing to help you stay the course.
Before the service, your sponsor needs to go to Confession and receive Holy Communion. They’re preparing themselves spiritually for this responsibility. The Church is making sure the person promising to guide you is actually living the faith themselves.
After You’re Orthodox
Here’s where a lot of people get confused, especially if they come from backgrounds where godparents send a birthday card once a year and that’s about it. Orthodox sponsors have real ongoing duties.
They’re supposed to make sure you’re going to church regularly. That you’re receiving Holy Communion. That you’re learning your prayers. If you have kids and your sponsor is their godparent, they should be checking that those kids are in Sunday School and growing up Orthodox.
A sponsor carries a sacred responsibility.
Your sponsor should be someone you can call when you’re struggling. When you can’t figure out how to fast during your shift at the plant. When your Baptist mother-in-law is giving you grief about icons. When you’re just tired and tempted to sleep in on Sunday. They’re your accountability partner, your guide, your backup.
Who Can Be a Sponsor
Not just anyone. Your sponsor has to be a practicing Orthodox Christian in good standing. They need to know the Creed by heart. They should be someone whose faith you actually want to imitate, not just your college roommate or your cousin.
Sponsors are chosen with Fr. Michael. That’s hard if your best friend is Baptist and you’d love for them to stand with you, but they can be a witness at the service while an Orthodox Christian serves as your actual sponsor.
The Church isn’t being picky for no reason. Your sponsor is guaranteeing your faith. They can’t do that if they don’t share it.
Choosing Your Sponsor
Pick someone who’s going to take this seriously. Someone who actually goes to church, not just on Pascha. Someone who’ll answer the phone. Someone who lives close enough to be part of your life, or at least someone you’re in regular contact with.
Some people choose a sponsor because they felt obligated, or because that person had been Orthodox longer, or because they didn’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. Don’t do that. This relationship matters too much.
Talk to your priest about potential sponsors. He knows the people in the parish. He can help you think through whether someone’s a good fit.
And if you’re being asked to sponsor someone else? Think hard before you say yes. You’re promising before God to help this person stay Orthodox. If you can’t commit to that, it’s better to decline graciously than to make a promise you won’t keep.
The sponsor relationship is meant to be lifelong. It’s a spiritual bond that connects you to another person in the Body of Christ. When it works the way it should, it’s one of the great gifts of Orthodox life. Your sponsor becomes family in a way that goes deeper than blood.
