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February 12, 2016

Comments

Terry

I see the book from which this quotation is taken was published in 2002, which means the events described took place even before then. Thus I don't know what Church of England liturgy would have been used at that service. But since Advent 2000, with the introduction of Common Worship, the C of E's baptism liturgy does include 'With the help of God, we will' at various points. Its initial use is during the 'Presentation of the Candidates', with first the parents and godparents promising to walk with the candidates and care for them 'with the help of God'. Next comes the 'Decision' part, where the candidates are required simply to 'reject' the devil, etc. There's no mention here of 'with the help of God' - which plays into your quotation, Andy. But then in the 'Commission', for 'the newly baptized who are able to answer for themselves', the minister asks questions such as, 'Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?' - and these questions here are answered, 'With the help of God, I will.' So the response isn't totally absent from the C of E's baptism liturgy. But arguably its locations could be more widespread. And, for what its worth, when we have baptisms at our church, I'm not entirely sure that we use the 'Commission' that much, because, being C of E, most of our baptisms are for infants, and I suspect the full liturgy is then forgotten on those rarer occasions when we do baptise adults!

Was any of that interesting? ;)

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