Pivotal bit of Christening ritual performed in name only (7)
I believe the answer is:
titular
'in name only' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'pivotal bit of christening ritual performed' is the wordplay.
'pivotal bit of christening' becomes 't' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'performed' indicates anagramming the letters.
'ritual' with letters rearranged gives 'itular'.
't'+'itular'='TITULAR'
(Other definitions for titular that I've seen before include "as a figurehead" , "Relating to title" , "See" , "such a bishop has given old name" , "Relating to a name" .)