THE CONTEXT (Let the Community rise.)
Priest: In the name of the Father, the Son and the
Holy Ghost. Amen.
Community: Amen.
Priest: Members of the community of faith, this child (born to John and Yvonne Stringham) is brought before us for a rite of consecration. She is, as are all humans, born into the abounding grace of God. This act of ours today signifies for us and to her that she is a member of the body of Christ. As a community we once again take part in the universal drama between God and Man. We acknowledge the claim that each new life, and particularly this one, makes on us.
Let the parents give the child to representatives
of the community as symbol of her membership in the family of
God. Let us praise the Lord of All. (Sing GIVE THANKS)
THE OLD TESTAMENT READING: PSALM 139 (Community is seated.)
Priest: Thou it was who didst fashion my inward parts;
thou didst knit me together in my mother's womb.
Men: I will praise thee, for thou doth fill me with
awe; wonderful thou art, and wonderful thy works.
Women: Thou knowest me through and through; my body is no mystery to thee.
Men: How I was secretly kneaded into shape and patterned
in the depths of the earth.
Women: Thou didst see my limbs unformed in the womb
and in thy book they are all recorded.
Men: Day by day they were fashioned; not one of them
was late in growing.
Women: How deep I find thy thoughts O God, how inexhaustible
their themes.
Men: Can I count them? They outnumber the grains
of sand; to finish the count, my years must equal thine.
Women: Examine me, O God, and know my thoughts; test
me, and understand my misgivings.
Men: Watch lest I follow any path that grieves thee;
guide me in the ancient ways.
THE NEW TESTAMENT READING (Let the Community rise.)
Reader: We proclaim something which has always existed
yet which we our selves have seen and heard: something which we
had the opportunity to observe closely and even to hold in our
hands, and yet, as we know now, was something of the very word
of Life. For it was life which appeared before us. It was the
very life of all ages, the life that has always existed with the
Father which actually became visible in person to us mortal men,
We repeat, we really saw and heard what we are now speaking about.
The more the fellowship extends the greater joy it brings to us
who are already in it.
Context and Issues
Several weeks after our first child's birth we began
to talk about what kind of ceremony should mark her entrance into
a family that has decided to be Christian and therefore into the
Christian community, Being from different denominational backgrounds,
our heritage in regard to baptism was different and so we began
to ask what the church actually meant by baptism.
We began to examine the life journey of a human being,
the journey of becoming a Christian and have attempted to re-discover
the basic questions and their relationships. The church itself
is struggling with the question of what form Christian initiation
should take. We have used some of the various documents written
on the subject to inform our own thinking. We hope this work can
be of help to others as they also try to decide how to responsibly
bring up children in the Christian context.
Human Journey and the Church's Response
Birth: A human's birth means a new being has entered history - one whose potential is unknown. Early man recognized this and marked the event by a rite and celebration after a new birth. The forms of so solemnizing a birth differ widely. The important common elements are these:
1) giving a child a man by which the community will henceforth address her,
2) claiming promises of the child's future participation in that society,
The church, as the portion of the human community
responsive first to God on behalf of the human community, intensifies
and particularizes the event of birth.
The Christian community, as it names a child, gives
a story to that child about who he or she is. A name points to
an historical figure or definition associated with it that becomes
a guardian angel or a guide with whom the child can dialogue over
his life.
The church, those who accept and live out of the
word of Jesus Christ as the truth of life, claims its promise
by electing the child to be brought up in that understanding.
It looks forward to confirm that decision when the individual
indicates her decision to do so.
The Christian community charges the parents as those
naturally responsible and the godparents as those responsible
in behalf of the whole community with the responsibility of the
child's physical care and spiritual upbringing so that she will
fully understand and appreciate the truth of the way life is and
respond to its demand.
Finally, the community blesses the child, projecting
a future of service, participation and spiritual fulfillment.
The forms through which this is done and symbolized have often
changed and are still changing. Circumcision, infant baptism,
dedication ceremonies, forms of anointing, presentation and blessing
have been and are still used. He rites and promises also vary
but the elements above are common in most.
Passage from Childhood to Adulthood: Every human
community recognizes a time when a human being ceases to be primarily
a receiver of care, protection, and education from the community
and becomes instead primarily a contributor to that community's
well being. This shift is always a gradual one. However, our ancestors
recognized that an event or events which symbolized this shift
was needed for the individual and the community to be clear that
a change in status had taken place.
Many rites of passage exist, but all appear to involve the following:
The church again intensifies the step. For the church
this becomes an occasion when an individual declares her own free
acceptance of the Christian faith and in so doing fulfills the
election made in her behalf at her birth celebration. The individual
takes on responsibility for the future fulfillment of that covenant.
Historically, the rites which have been used to mark these events
have been adult baptism, confirmation, response to an altar call,
and membership ceremonies.
Death: Dying is a lifelong process. The individual
rehearses and experiences the completion of her own death many
times before the final event. Acceptance of death as the inevitable
and final fact of life is necessary if a community or an individual
is to survive as a healthy entity.
The church understands death to be a celebration
of life completed and a sendout into the unknown but faithfully
anticipated fulfillment of union with the Mystery itself. Each
individual's death is the occasion for the rest of the community
to rehearse their own to-be-completed lives, to affirm the worth
of the member who is no more physically present and to give thanks
to that which causes man to be, to be sustained, and not to be.
Burial services, ashes on Ash Wednesday Remembrance Day, etc.,
are ways in which this is done.
Our Response
We are agreed that the sacrament claims the promise
that the child would at some point in the future decide of her
own free well to assume the life style of a Christian, that the
parents and congregation jointly participate in taking responsibility
for teaching the child what is involved in being a Christian,
and that the sacrament rehearses that the child belongs to God.
Most of our discussion and research have centered
around the symbolism of immersion in water and when that symbol
should be used, i.e., the effectiveness of baptism as an infant
vs. Adult baptism in a person's life.
The most powerful statement we found on infant baptism came from The Sacraments Today by Juan Luis Segundo, S.J.
"Baptism ostensibly gives to the Christian child
what God gives to all children: birth into a redeemed world, that
is, participation in the liberation which Christ brought to the
word. This means that
baptism does not set up two groups
of opposed human beings by virtue of some magic applied from the
outside... Baptism constitutes the sign of a grace that all human
beings receive at the moment they are born into a world which
could have been a world enslaved to the powers of death and destruction
but in fact is not. Because grace abounded even more than sin
did, it is a world where love and life triumph so long as they
are not opposed by man's free and express will. Christians do
not have a monopoly on grace, but they do have a monopoly on its
sensible, significative, sacramental manifestation."
The power of symbol at baptism for an adult is in
the dramatization of death to the old life and resurrection to
the new life. The most profound sign of accountability end absolution
is captured with the baptism. That which has been true in the
life of a human being since birth is acknowledged and received
and therefore experienced with wonder and gratitude.
It seems that in our tine baptism as a sacrament
has lost its sign-bearing power for the community whether administered
to infants or adults. For infants, baptism is often reduced to
something that is thought to give a child supernatura1 defences
against evil or as a special option on future blessing. It is
more often limited to a service for the sake of the child, rather
than an occasion for the community to reaffirm its basic understanding
of life and covenant together to live out the sign of God's mercy.
For adults, baptism has been confused with a church membership
ceremony or simply a very persona decision which does not involve
the community except as witnesses.
In this light, we decided that the power of the sign
which baptism is to the individual and the community is far greater
in our time when that person is baptized as an adult.
We have decided that the Church today needs to dramatize
the adult commitment to the life lived in the word. Baptism is
the preeminent sign of acceptance of that Gracefilled
life.
Nevertheless, there still needs to be a way in which
an infant is accepted into the Christian community, and responsibility
for its growth as a person born into grace assumed by its parents,
God parents and the community. Therefore, we proposed this following
Rite of Consecration be used. (separate copy)
John & Yvonne Stringham
1974
Priest: Beloved ones, God, who is rich in mercy,
because of the great love he has for us, gave us life together
with Christ. It is, remember, by grace and not achievement that
we are saved.
Community: What we are we owe to the hand of God
upon us. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to
do those good deeds which God planned for us to do. Though sin
is shown to be wide and deep, thank God his grace is wider and
deeper still. Now grace is the ruling factor.
Priest: Let us pray. (Let the Community be seated.)
Community: O ThouWhoHastEverBeen,
we yield thee hearty thanks that it hath pleased thee to add this
child to the human family and to thy Holy Church. May we be found
attentive to the part we play in thy Creation. Amen
DEDICATIONS (Priest, godparents rise)
Priest: In giving up our lives, life abundant is
given to us. We consecrate this day Dara Elise to live in the
Christstyle, to be daily crucified and daily risen from
the dead in service and love for the world.
(Mark her with the sign of the cross.)
Do you, the parents and godparents of this child,
vow before God and this community to love Dara as a representative
of all people, to care for her, to teach her the truth of Life?
Do you take responsibility for her life?
Parents and
Godparents: We do, God being our helper.
Priest: Do you, the people of God, vow to continue
to create a world where the love that is justice operates unceasingly
forever, to assume responsibility for her life and the lives of
all?
Community: We do, God being our helper.
Priest: Dara, the blessing of God is with you.
Let us pray. (Let the Community be seated.)
Our Father we give you again that which is yours, the life of Dara. We receive her again as a gift from you. Use her and us in the care of a suffering world. Amen.
Community: Amen.
(The Community rises.)
Priest: Go in God's peace. Hallelujah! Amen.
Community: Amen.