Baptism at All Saints’

One of the Most Significant Elements of Being a Christian

God establishes an indissoluble bond with each person in baptism, the full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit, and our way into Christ’s Body, the church. Through baptism, God adopts us and makes us members of the church and inheritors of the Kingdom of God (BCP, pp. 298, 858). In baptism, we are made sharers in the new life of the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sins. As such, baptism is the foundation for all future church participation and ministry.

Each candidate for baptism in the Episcopal Church is sponsored by one or more baptized persons, also known as godparents. These sponsors speak on behalf of candidates for baptism who are infants or younger children, and cannot speak for themselves at the Presentation and Examination of the Candidates. During the baptismal rite, members of the congregation promise to do all they can to support the candidates throughout their life in Christ, and join the candidates by renewing their own baptismal covenants.

The baptismal waters may be administered by immersion or affusin (pouring) (BCP, p. 307), and candidates are baptized “in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” before being marked on the forehead with the sign of the cross (chrism may be used for this marking). The newly-baptized is then “sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own, forever.”

When all baptisms have been completed, the celebrant and congregation welcome the newly administered into the Eucharist as the chief service on a Sunday, or another feast. The Catechism notes that “Infants are baptized so that they can share citizenship in the Covenant, membership in Christ, and redemption by God.” The baptismal promises are made for infants by their parents or sponsors, “who guarantee that the infants will be brought up within the Church, to know Christ and be able to follow him” (BCP, pp. 858-859). Baptism is especially appropriate at the Easter Vigil, the Day of Pentecost, All Saint’s Day or the Sunday following, and the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord (the First Sunday after the Epiphany).