A third account of baptism, this time from Lauren Winner. Winner was an orthodox Jew who becomes a Christian. She tells her story in Girl Meets God.
I was baptized the first March I was at Cambridge, at a Sunday morning service in the antechamber of the chapel. I told Jo she had to use a lot of water, that I was descended from a long line of full-immersion Baptists, and the traditional Anglican sprinkling would not do. She made sure the water was warm, she doused me in it, and then she wrapped me in a big, striped bathrobe. “Like Joseph’s coat of many colours,” she said. Another Cambridge student was my godmother. She gave me the silver cross I wear around my neck. It is small and square, with slightly rounded corners.
A few days before my baptism, I met with Jo to go over the service. “Let’s just read through this,” she said.
Before actually baptizing me, Jo would ask a series of questions. The answers were printed out, right there I front of me, in my prayer book. Sitting in her room drinking tea, Jo and I practiced aloud. Jo’s role was to ask the questions like “Do you turn to Christ?” and I was to say, “I turn to Christ.” “Do you renounce evil?” she would ask, and I would say, “I renounce evil.” And so on.
We got the third exchange, and finally I said, “This is ridiculous, I can’t promise these things. Half the time I don’t trust God one iota. I can’t stand up there and promise that I will trust him forever and ever. Who on earth makes these promises?
Jo got up and went to the bookshelf. She found an American Book of Common Prayer, which is slightly different from the Church of England’s prayer book. “Here, maybe this ill make you feel better,” she said, flipping to the baptismal service. “In the American prayer book, you don’t just answer all these questions in the affirmative. You say, ‘I will, with God’s help.’”
I usually think the Church of England is much more together, insightful, and generally sane than the Protestant Episcopal Church of the U.S.A. But in this case, I think we Americans got it right. I will, with God’s help.
(taken from Lauren F. Winner, Girl Meets God: On a Path to a Spiritual Life (Algonquin Books, 2002), p.81.
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? ;)
Posted by: Terry | February 13, 2016 at 12:03 PM