Preparing for Baptism in the Episcopal Church

by Anne E. Kitch

Overview

A primer or refresher on the sacrament of Baptism for new
parents, new members, and godparents.

This book is about preparing for Christian baptism in the Episcopal Church. While we may hear people say, “I was baptized a Methodist,” or “I was baptized Catholic, or “I was baptized Episcopalian,” people are not baptized into a denomination; they are baptized into the Christian faith. While various Christian denominations differ both their theology of baptism as it is understood and practiced in the Episcopal Church following the rite found in the Book of Common Prayer 1979.

“This short book is full of helpful information, solid history, sound theology, and thoughtful reflection. It is the perfect book to give to adults or to parents of young children seeking baptism through the Episcopal Church. I am happy that I will be able to offer this book to my students for their future use when guiding baptismal candidates. A truly welcome resource.”—The Reverend Dr. Nathan Jennings, associate professor of liturgics and Anglican studies, Seminary of the Southwest

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780819231727
Publisher:	Morehouse Publishing
Publication date:	07/01/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	56
Sales rank:	867,229
File size:	408 KB

About the Author

Anne E. Kitch is a priest, educator, writer, and speaker whose work is grounded in the conviction that God's grace arrives in the everyday. Kitch currently serves as the rector of St. Luke’s Church in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. The author of The Anglican Family Prayer Book,Taking the Plunge: Baptism and Parenting, Preparing for Baptism in the Episcopal Church, and the popular What We Do in Church series for children. She lives in Phillipsburg, New Jersey.

Read an Excerpt

Preparing for Baptism in the Episcopal Church

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By Anne E. Kitch

Church Publishing Incorporated

Copyright © 2015 Anne E. Kitch
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8192-3172-7

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CHAPTER 1

A BEGINNING

Water. Ancient words. The Holy Spirit. Baptism. Simply put, Christian baptism is new life. It is a beginning. It is a belonging. It is an initiation. The elements employed in Christian baptism are simple. Water and words. Water that has been blessed by prayer, and ancient words, "I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Then, of course, comes the inexorable power of the Holy Spirit, sweeping in like a rush of wind to bestow new life.

Water as the outward symbol of baptism seems obvious. Water is necessary for life. All life. Any life. Our bodies consist of up to 80 percent water, while 75 percent of the earth is covered by water. In the book of Genesis, water preexists creation:

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. — Genesis 1:1–2

Water is powerful. Human beings can harness it to produce energy. Its rains can dissolve mountains and dig canyons over millennia. Its floods can wipe away entire hillsides in a few minutes. It cleanses and purifies.

Words also convey power. The ancient words of baptism come from scripture. In the final chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus leaves his disciples with these words:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. — Matthew 28:19–20a

From the beginning, the church has used these words in its rites of initiation, invoking the Trinity. Water and words. But what exactly is baptism all about?

Through the sacred rite of Holy Baptism, people enter a new life in Christ. This life is characterized by love and promise. A life in Christ brings with it surety in the goodness of all creation, persistent hope, and regard for compassion, justice, humility, and gentleness. It is abundant with forgiveness, the continual opportunity for renewal and reconciliation, and entrance into the mystery of eternal life. This life is lived out here and now, yet also in the future, as we stand at the threshold of the sacred and believe that our lives can be transformed daily into peace and delight that is beyond suffering. Baptism is a cleansing and a renewal. A beginning and an ongoing story. A liminal moment and an eternal mystery.

This book is about preparing for Christian baptism in The Episcopal Church. While we may hear people say, "I was baptized a Methodist," or "I was baptized Catholic," or "I was baptized an Episcopalian," people are not baptized into a denomination; people are baptized into the Christian faith. While various Christian denominations differ in both their theology of baptism and their rites, faith in Christ is a unifying gift. This book explores baptism as it is understood and practiced in The Episcopal Church following the rite found in the Book of Common Prayer 1979.

CHAPTER 2

WHAT IS BAPTISM?

Holy Baptism is full initiation by water and Holy Spirit into Christ's Body the Church. The bond which God establishes in Baptism is indissoluble. (BCP, p. 298)

Thus baptism is defined in the Book of Common Prayer, the liturgical book of The Episcopal Church. But what does this mean? If we were to dissect this statement, we might point to the word "initiation" as being of obvious importance. We might also be drawn to the word "full." The Episcopal Church claims that baptism is full initiation. Nothing else is needed for membership. Any baptized person, regardless of age, ability, gender, ethnicity, or any other human characteristic, is fully a part of the church. Thus baptism should not be entered into lightly or without preparation.

God is the agent in baptism; God originates this initiation. It is God who establishes the bond. God is the actor here. Through baptism, people are bound to God and God will not let go. Ever. In fact, that bond, made by water and the Holy Spirit, is "indissoluble." It cannot be dissolved. We say that God is faithful. Even as believers, we act unfaithfully toward God all the time. But God never loses faith in us.

Baptism is the result of God's grace, the unearned favor of God. People enter into baptism, or choose to have their children baptized, because they have yearned for God and have begun turning to God in Christ. This turning is the beginning of what Christians call conversion, a process in which both God and the seeker take an active part. But make no mistake; it is God the Holy Spirit who confers new life.

Baptism is also a sacrament. In fact, according to the catechism found in the Book of Common Prayer (BCP, pp. 845–862), it is one of two that Jesus initiates. The other is the Eucharist. A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace. The outward and visible sign of baptism is the water along with the words of the triune formula. The inward and spiritual grace conferred by baptism is nothing less than union with Jesus Christ. And this union encompasses birth into God's family, forgiveness of sins, and new life in the Holy Spirit.

And for centuries, people have been willing to take the plunge.

TAKING THE PLUNGE: WHY GET BAPTIZED?

Baptism is never about getting one's feet wet or testing the waters. As Bishop Michael Curry has said, whether the priest sprinkles water on a baptismal candidate or dunks her in a river, baptism is nothing less than full immersion into the power of the Holy Spirit. Why would anyone want to do that?

To choose to be baptized is to choose to enter deeply into a life in Christ. And this means to enter into the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection. Even though the baptism service itself might take place in a beautiful church on a glorious spring morning, the church teaches that through baptism one must actually die to one life in order to be born into another. Those baptized die to a life that is not centered on Christ, so as to be born anew into one that makes no sense without the love of Christ.

The Christian life is about more than a set of values. It is about believing that Christ conquered sin and death. It is about the assurance that comes with having a savior who has suffered the worst the world has to offer, has overcome death, and has risen to respond in love. The Christian life is about more than getting into heaven. It is about choosing to love others each day because God first loved us, and because all people are God's beloved. The Christian life is about feeding the hungry, finding the lost, comforting the bereft, healing the broken, setting free the oppressed. The Christian life is about making a difference in the world each day. It is about loving God and loving one's neighbor — and one's neighbor turns out to be everybody. The Christian life demands all of one's being.

And the Christian life makes sense out of all of one's being. Choosing to be baptized is to choose to be transformed by love over and over again for a lifetime. And beyond.

THE CREEDS AND ANCIENT PRACTICES

Choosing to be baptized is also to take on a particular set of beliefs. Creeds are statements of belief; in fact, the word "creed" comes from the Latin credo or "I believe." The Episcopal Church uses two creeds in worship: the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed. The Nicene Creed was developed at the Council of Nicea in 325 and is a sophisticated theological statement about basic Christian tenants. The Apostles' Creed is more ancient, its very name deriving from a story that the first apostles themselves each wrote a line. What is known about the Apostles' Creed is that it is not only a statement of belief, but also an ancient baptismal formula. In the early church, a Christian baptism might have looked something like the following:

Having spent several months or even years of instruction in the Christian faith and practices, an adult would be ready for baptism. On the day of the baptism, the converts would first be taken to a baptistry adjoining the main worship area. There, they would be asked about their belief, "Do you believe in God the Father?" They would respond with the formulaic lines that they had been taught, but which also encapsulated the theological understanding of the first person of the Trinity. Having answered, they would then be submerged into the water.

They would then be asked, "Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?" Their affirmative response would be followed by a second submersion. Finally, they would be asked, "Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?" and upon answering with the last part of the creed they would undergo a third submersion. Then the newly baptized would each be clothed in a clean white garment as a sign of new birth, and led in procession to the church where the community would already be gathered in prayer. There they would be welcomed and immediately join in the celebration of the Eucharist, receiving communion for the first time.

Even have spent up to three years in instruction in the Christian faith, the newly baptized did not consider themselves mature Christians. Rather they, and the community of believers, knew that they would continue to grow into the full stature of Christ. They were practicing Christians — followers of Christ who practiced every day.

Then, as today, what follows baptism is lifelong formation in the Christian faith as a disciple of Jesus.

THE APOSTLES' CREED

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

CHAPTER 3

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAPTISM

by James F. Turrell

Through the Paschal mystery, dear friends, we are buried with Christ by Baptism into his death, and raised with him to newness of life. (BCP, p. 292)

While most Christian groups baptize (a notable exception being the Quakers), there has been considerable diversity in the rite's practice and theology. Some of the diversity has centered around performance: Whom should be baptized? Who may perform the baptism? What additional ceremonies might be added to the water bath? How much water to use? Other debated questions have involved the rite's meaning: How are we to understand this sacrament? Is baptism the only initiatory sacrament, or does something (for example, confirmation) need to follow? Perhaps the most foundational question has been whether baptism is efficacious: Does it actually do anything? Various Christian communities, in various times, have answered these questions in sharply divergent ways.

Some of this variety is perhaps inevitable, given that the earliest picture of baptism is murky. There is no clear evidence in the New Testament that Jesus himself ever baptized others (apart from a stray reference in John 3:22, which seems to be contradicted a few verses later at 4:2). Jesus's command to baptize, in Matthew 28:19, may or may not be an editorial insertion. Paul's letters presume a pre-existing practice of baptism, but he himself does not describe the ritual practices used. The Acts of the Apostles, at least, describes several baptisms, but the picture is varied. For example, the neophytes (beginners) that Philip the deacon baptized did not receive the Holy Spirit, in a situation that was regarded as so unusual that the apostles needed later to impose hands in a sort of remedial action (8:14–17). But in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch (8:26–40), there was no subsequent handlaying by the apostles, so presumably Philip was apparently able to confer the Spirit that time. To complicate matters further, sometimes the Spirit came before baptism, as in Acts 10. There is, in short, no clear biblical picture of baptism.

While we have better evidence about ritual process in the second and subsequent centuries, we find considerable diversity until at least the fourth century. Some sources, such as the Didache, described a liturgy in which the only ritual action was the water bath. Others, such as the Didascalia, described a sequence of ritual actions, beginning with the anointing of the head and body and concluding with the water bath. The pre-bath anointing was the more important part of the rite, thought to convey the Holy Spirit. In North Africa, by contrast, the sequence was reversed. The water bath came first, followed by anointing. Infant baptism was practiced, but adult baptism was more common, if only because many more came into the church through conversion than through being born to Christian parents. Adult candidates participated in a period of preparation called the catechumenate, which varied in length from three weeks to forty days.

In the fourth and fifth centuries, the baptismal rites across the church came into greater congruence. Most of the Eastern baptismal rites shifted to add a post-bath anointing, along the lines of the Western rites. These post-bath anointings were seen as giving the Holy Spirit, and their pre-bath anointings were re-interpreted as exorcistic (driving out evil forces). In the West, elaborate pre-bath ceremonies, including exorcistic anointings, were added. In Rome, one post-bath was performed by a presbyter, while a second anointing seems to have been reserved to the bishop. In the rest of the West, a presbyter could do all of the anointing. Baptism took place in the context of the Eucharist, so that the neophytes received communion for the first time directly after the bath and anointing, in a unified initiatory rite. Infants as well as adults experienced this unified rite; all who were baptized were also anointed and communicated.

In subsequent centuries, this unified rite broke apart in the West. First, pressure mounted to get baptism done sooner rather than later, largely as a result of increased anxiety about original sin. Also, the Roman rite became the dominant liturgical pattern in the West, so that the norm of a bishop's post-bath anointing spread, usually experienced as an addition, rather than a breaking-off of an episcopal action from a unified rite.Finally, the relative lack of bishops in much of Western Europe (outside the Italian peninsula, medieval dioceses were not particularly compact, in geographical terms) meant that presbyters still performed many baptisms, even as a post-bath anointing was reserved to bishops. The result was a two-stage structure of initiation, with baptism by a presbyter and a subsequent handlaying and anointing by the bishop. The latter rite came to be called "confirmation."

It is important to note that confirmation, in the Middle Ages, had nothing to do with age or education. One was supposed to be confirmed as soon as possible after baptism. Medieval art portrayed infants as the appropriate subjects of confirmation. Further, because of distance and inconvenience (for both bishop and laity), confirmation was rarely performed. Thirteenth-century legislation in England asserted that no one should receive communion until they had been confirmed, in an attempt to make confirmation more widely observed. (From the available evidence, it seems that it had no effect whatsoever.) Confirmation was rarely practiced and widely ignored in the Middle Ages.

At the same time that the post-bath anointing in the unified initiatory rite had split off, first communion came to be delayed as well. Over the course of the Middle Ages, communion came, in the popular imagination, to be tied to private confession of sins to the priest ("auricular confession"), something in which infants did not take part. Various ages were used for first confession, with the age of seven being mandated only as late as the first decades of the twentieth century; but, in any case, first communion was clearly separated from baptism, beginning in the Middle Ages.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Preparing for Baptism in the Episcopal Church by Anne E. Kitch. Copyright © 2015 Anne E. Kitch. Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS,
A BEGINNING,
WHAT IS BAPTISM?,
A BRIEF HISTORY OF BAPTISM,
BAPTISM OF ADULTS,
BAPTISM OF CHILDREN,
PREPARING CHILDREN FOR BAPTISM,
GODPARENTS,
THE BAPTISMAL COVENANT,
THE EPISCOPAL BAPTISMAL RITE,
REMEMBERING ONE'S BAPTISM,
BAPTISMAL INSTRUCTION,
BAPTISM FAQS,
SCRIPTURE READINGS,
RESOURCES,
GLOSSARY,
CHECKLIST AND APPLICATION FORMS,