Our presenters at the Water and a Baptismal Life conference, including ethicist Larry Rasmussen, liturgy prof Ben Stewart, and professor Janet Walton, all encouraged us to consider the liberal use of water in baptism to remind congregations that water is a precious gift of God. We did some reflecting on the "damp hand" form of baptism where the water is barely visible. We were reminded as well that even some denominations which immerse baptismal candidates do so in a tank that is recessed and almost hidden from view. Their encouragement was basically "go wet or go home."
When we baptise at St. Paul's I invite a child to pour the water into the font in full view of the congregation, and I try to make the water visible in the act of baptism. I'm sure we could be splashier and perhaps we should be. The font we have doesn't let us see the water and it sure doesn't make any noise. In some churches the water is very visible. The baptismal font above is in the Santa Fe Cathedral, and it is large and noisy, with the water gurgling away as one walks by.
Does it make sense to you to make a bigger splash when we baptise? Do we need to make baptism a more sensory and a more meaningful sacrament?
Are there other ways to use water in our worship besides through baptism. I serve a congregation where baptisms are very rare. If we have one a year, we are lucky. It might be interesting to create a service in which we are all reminded of our baptism and we are symbolically re-baptized. We did a service in May (it was part of the 85th anniversary celebration) where the children took pine branches dipped in water and sprinkled the congregation with water. Everyone loved it.
ReplyDeleteGood question. At the course it was suggested that we could choose times of the year such as Baptism of Christ Sunday and Pentecost to renew our baptismal faith, whether we have baptismal candidates or not. January in Stoughton might include throwing snowballs!
ReplyDeleteThanks Deb.