Baptism Service for Harry C & Lucy G this morning.

William Taylor led a baptismal service at church this morning for two infants. The nice thing about St Helen's Bishopsgate is that although there are differing views on baptism within the church family these are not the cause of any friction between us.

Some people feel that baptism is an initiation rite into the covenant akin to the Old Testament practice of circumcision. Others see no such link. This goes back to something I wrote last Friday about continuity/ discontinuity between the Old and New Covenants. Some folk think there is a lot of continuity and others (like me) think there is less, I'm at one point on the spectrum and others are further along from me.

Just because I see more discontinuity it would be a terrible misrepresentation to imply that children are not important to me or that the children of believers are not precious to God. In 1 Corinthians 7 v14 the children of believers are described as 'holy'; but please note that they are holy already on account of having a believing parent, baptism is not to be misconstrued as adding a dash extra holiness to this. Baptism is a very public ceremony to welcome these infants into the local church family; actually when you think about it is the public aspect that makes it special otherwise if it was purely a sacramental thing then one could do it entirely privately. The reality is it is a church family, community event and not a private rite.

St Helen's also has believers' baptism by full immersion. This practice is treated with scepticism by some churches. The important thing is that here at St Helen's we can come together in peace and unity despite differences on secondary matters because we aim to keep the Gospel of Jesus Christ central in our church life.

William was very careful to point out that baptising these infants does not make them Christian - that is something that only God can do. Faith is a gift from God, so the sign of baptism cannot, somehow, bring about the thing signified. That is God's prerogative.