Our recent parish survey provided the opportunity to raise questions and offer comments on our common life. One aspect of our life that sparked response is our baptismal pool. As I tried to suggest in the parish discussions that we had a couple of weeks ago, the issue for me is not that we must for some reason use a black plastic backyard pool when we baptize. What is important is that we reflect the Prayer Book understanding of baptism by having a way to gather as a community and to have an abundant use of water. The reality is that things do change in the life and practice of the Church, and our stone font with a shallow bowl and room for six people to stand around simply doesn’t work.
We are entering into the season of Lent, a season that grows out of the centrality and power of baptism in the Christian life. In the early Church, there was a long and careful (up to three years) time of preparation for baptism, which would take place at the Great Vigil of Easter. The catechumens (those preparing to come into the life of the Church through baptism) would come into the last phase of that preparation – eventually set at forty days – as a time of learning, fasting and prayer before they were immersed in the waters of baptism. There they were touched and renewed by the Holy Spirit, there sins and an old life were washed away, there they were mystically united with the crucified and resurrected Christ – there they were reborn. A Sacrament of such power and meaning requires a rich and full celebration. Those baptized at St. Paul’s are no less touched and changed by the presence and power of the Holy Trinity.
The Vestry here has begun a creative conversation about a way to incorporate our historic font with abundant water and to create more space to gather as a baptizing community. What are other parishes doing these days for baptism?
