Baptisms
There are a number of occasions each year when the minister has people
coming to him to ask that their child be baptised, without necessarily
having any great understanding as to what it means or involves.
Sometimes they are being pressurised by parents or grandparents to have
their new baby ‘done’. This may explain what we are about when we
baptise children.
The sacrament of baptism is one of the two sacraments that we celebrate
in the Church of Scotland, the other being communion.
Baptism in the Christian faith has it’s beginnings in the New Testament
when Christians are commanded to go and make disciples of all nations,
and to baptise them. Baptism was something that happened to those who
believed and was a sign that they were entering the fellowship of
believers, the church. There came a time when Christian parents wanted
their children to be part of the church and so they started to baptise
infants, in the belief that they were made part of the visible church
and in due course would come to have their own faith.
When children are baptised it is usually at a normal service on a Sunday
and the parents take certain vows. They first of all make confession of
their faith when they are asked the question:
In presenting this child for baptism do you confess your faith in God as
your Heavenly Father, in Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord and in
the Holy Spirit as your sanctifier?
They are further asked:
Do you promise, depending on the grace of God, to teach him/her the
duties of he Christian faith and by prayer, instruction and example to
bring him/her up in the ways of Christ and the fellowship of the church?
The whole thing about baptism is that it is about bringing children into
the community of faith and so it is essential that the parents
themselves are part of that community or the baptism means little or
nothing at all. One parent at least should be a member of the church,
and to set a good example should be a regular worshipper.