News and Information
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.