Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Justin Welby on Baptism & the Prince



Vid specially produced by the ABofC for Prince George's baptism.

"God's love is offered without qualification, without price, without cost, to all people in all circumstances always."

Interesting what isn't in here. Both the cross and the baptism in water are marks of death as well as new life. Even the future king needs to be born again to see the Kingdom of God. Surprisingly, it's down to the Guardian to point all this out.

But it's worth watching the clip to the end, the final words are excellent (see below), I might start using them in our services.

There's a baptism enquiry evening at our place tonight, wondering if there'll be a sudden influx through the West Country rain. (update 2: no rain, no influx. Having said that, we do encourage people to come along on Sunday first and meet one of the clergy, and that would have been quite tricky to manage between 9am and 7.30pm on a Tuesday. I did have an enquiry about a renewal of marriage vows at a school parents evening though, not sure if that counts.)

update: here's the text of that closing prayer
For you Jesus Christ came into the world
For you He lived and showed God’s love
For you He suffered the darkness of Calvary and cried at the last “it is accomplished”
For you He triumphed over death and rose to new life
For you He reigns at God’s right hand
All this He did for you,
   though you do not know it yet.

5 comments:

  1. It surely can't be coincidence that while ++Justin is speaking the above quote "to all people in all circumstances always" the video is showing two women walking along apparently (maybe) holding hands?

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  2. I especially noticed and like the words from the Church of Scotland that he quotes at the end of the video - great summary of the Christian faith.

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  3. What's a Baptism Enquiry Evening?

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    1. An evening we hold every 6 weeks or so for people who are enquiring about baptism at the church - normally they've joined us for Sunday worship and had a preliminary chat with one of the clergy. The evening gives a bit more input about baptism, deals with questions, starts to look at dates, and gives some more material for people to reflect on. We then do a home visit with each family. I'd be intrigued to know what baptism prep William and Katherine have done, did the ABC take them through the first module of the Pilgrim course?

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    2. Following http://www.future-shape-of-church.org/2013/10/baptism-and-christening.html I am looking to explore something like that in my new post. Would be interested to learn more.

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