Blogging about baptism
This Lent I’ve set myself the task of posting 40 Days of Baptism: each day I’m posting a story, a sermon, song, a sonnet, or similar around the theme of baptism. The aim was to help the church where I minister and any other interested readers think more deeply about baptism – what it means, how we celebrate it and remember our own.
Finding 40 different accounts of baptism has been a task, but an interesting and enjoyable one and I’ve found its put me on the path of discovering new thoughts and new things to read. Included are some stories of infant baptism, which some of us might exclaim, "But it’s not baptism!" I see this as an opportunity for some receptive ecumenism[1], to hear some stories that may challenge our views and give us pause for thought.
It feels appropriate to think about baptism during Lent because the season is a chance to immerse ourselves in story of Jesus’ journey, passion and death, which is what we do as we come to baptism.
Baptism, like the Lord’s supper, like the reading of Scripture, is a gift of God in which its meaning never gets exhausted. Hopefully the 40 days of baptism give us a glimpse of that.
They can be read here: http://andygoodliff.typepad.com/my_weblog/baptism/
Image: Open Church
[1] Receptive ecumenism says the first question we should ask is not what do other church traditions need to learn from us, but instead, what do we need to learn from them. For more on receptive ecumenism see here: https://www.dur.ac.uk/theology.religion/ccs/projects/receptiveecumenism/
Andy Goodliff is minister of Belle Vue Baptist Church, Southend-on-Sea
Baptist Times, 02/03/2016