Monday, October 31, 2005

Believer's baptism

What most people don't recognize about Anglicanism is that adult or "believer's" baptism is normative. Anglicans baptize infants and children because we understand that God's redemptive love is present in the sacramental act whether we are "believers" or not. A wise friend of mine put it this way, "Just because an infant doesn't understand what it means to be a member of a family, we make room for them. Why shouldn't this be true of God? If baptism is the outward sign of entry into the church, why should this be restricted to only those who 'understand'?" The BCP expresses it this way "Infants are baptized so that they can share citizenship in the Covenant, membership in Christ, and redemption by God." This places a heavy burden on the Church for catechesis and instruction, but Jesus does instruct his disciples to "go forth and baptize them...teaching them...." If we follow this formula from the end of Matthew's Gospel, it seems to me that baptism precedes instruction.

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