By Water and the Spirit

 

Since my husband and I joined the Anglican church, we’ve begun to understand the importance of tradition in a much deeper way. Many Protestants view Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches as “stiff” and “legalistic”–hemmed in and confined to their “traditions” and rituals. Before I became Anglican, I held similar sentiments. Now that I have routinely experienced these weekly and yearly “traditions” for myself, I’ve fallen in love. Rather than feeling hemmed in, I’ve found a great freedom and an enormous value to these rituals we Anglicans insist upon repeating week after week. In a recent blog post about Christmas traditions, I noted that,

A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society…the word “tradition” itself derives from the Latin tradere or traderer literally meaning to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping.

Around the holidays, we cherish our family traditions and repeat them faithfully. We want to pass on, in tangible and memorable ways, the values and beliefs we hold so dear. Since the Church is nothing less than the supreme family – that is, the family of God – why are we so opposed to doing the same?

One of my favorite collection of traditions connects to the sacrament of Baptism. There are all sorts of symbols that we use to help teach us about what baptism means. In fact, I learned a new tradition yesterday when a baby was baptized at our church. Actually, the tradition was only “new” to me. It is really a very old practice. In this tradition, the family “names” their child for the first time at her baptism — announcing the child to her spiritual family as she is welcomed into the Church. This tradition or ritual affirms the belief that, through the gift of baptism, we are adopted as God’s children and given a new identity and a new family.

Tyler and I recently celebrated Firstborn’s baptism day with several traditions. Since we observe infant baptism in the Anglican church (a practice which I firmly support), it’s even more important for us to develop rituals to teach children about the meaning of their baptisms. By celebrating the day of one’s baptism – or spiritual birthday – we remember the event as life changing and sacred.  Here’s what we did for Firstborn’s first spiritual “birthday”:

1. Gathering around our home altar (which I finally set up!) we lit our hand censer (incense burner) as is our custom before family prayer. Firstborn LOVES to watch the smoke rise and dance. 
2. Next, we read Firstborn the story of Jesus’ baptism – from his Jesus Storybook Bible (which I absolutely love and HIGHLY recommend). 
3. We showed him pictures of his own baptism and told him what the service was like (in very simple terms, of course).
4.  We also lit his baptismal candle. A baptismal candle is given to the person being baptized during the service. It is lit from the Paschal candle, which represents Christ. The candle demonstrates the light of Christ that is found inside of Firstborn now. It reminds him that he is called to be “the light of the world.” 
5. We then took a little water from his baptism (I saved some of it) and poured it in his hand, telling him that God forgives and cleanses us from our sins. 
6. Finally, Tyler and I said a prayer of blessing over him, asking God to help us as his parents to raise him up in the fear of the Lord. 
7. We also gave him a present – a clay cross with this prayer by St. Francis, “Lord make me an instrument of your peace.” 

Every year, we will repeat this ceremony – making adjustments as he matures. Every year, we will give him a gift to help him grow in his faith. Firstborn is only 16 months old, so he probably won’t remember any of what we did that day. But as he grows, this yearly celebration will become a part of his memories. We pray that it will aid us in teaching him about his true identity: a beloved child of God, the light of the world, and Christ’s disciple. The ritual is important for Tyler and me as well. It reminds us of our responsibility to fulfill the vows we made on Firstborn’s behalf. It challenges us to teach him what we believe so that one day, he can claim it for himself. I pray that God will help us in all the ways we fall short as his spiritual parents over the years! I know and trust that He will.

“But we, little fishes, after the example of our ΙΧΘΥΣ Jesus Christ, are born in water, nor have we safety in any other way than by permanently abiding in water…” –Tertullian