Formulary Friday: Instruction before Baptism

The theology of Infant Baptism has bewitched the English church for years. I spent a grand total of five years full-time study at Oak Hill College, and barely a week passed where baptism wasn’t discussed by Anglicans and independent Baptists, thankfully always respectfully.

I don’t intend to rehearse those arguments here. Rather I’m assuming that many readers of this blog are convinced paedobaptists who encounter a different question, one which I’ve been asked in the parish and wider diocesan contexts: What does it mean to adequately prepare a family for the baptism of their child?

The BCP in its rubric is refreshingly clear that families should be prepared, but helpfully quiet on how this should happen – helpful, because preparing a baptism family in my context, Hull in 2015, might look very different from preparing a family somewhere else and in a different age.

So what are families to be prepared to do? Well, the BCP speaks of two areas: 1. To care for the child, and 2. To demonstrate a godly life to the child. Let’s look at each of those in turn.

Baptism families are to be prepared to care for the child. This doesn’t mean less than caring for the child’s physical needs, but it does mean much more. The family promises to bring up the child in such a way as to prepare them for Confirmation. That is, under God, their parents will teach them to say, understand and believe the Creed, Lord’s Prayer, and Ten Commandments. The church family charges the family with this responsibility. Therefore to care for the child includes bringing them up to know the gospel.

Families are also charged to set the example of a godly life for the child. This means that the parents and godparents live a life of obedient repentance and faith within the wider context of the church family. The child doesn’t just need to know what being a Christian is, they also need to see it practised.

Back to my context in Hull – which I expect is similar to many other English parishes. The overwhelming majority of families bringing their children for baptism do not profess the biblical faith, neither do they know what constitutes a distinctly Christian life. Their life circumstances are many and their understanding of Christianity varied. Therefore our PCCs asked that we treat each family individually, tailoring their preparation to best help them understand the Christian faith for themselves, profess to believe as much as they understand, and commit to be part of the church family, before their child is baptised. So baptism preparation always involves frequently attending church. It may include joining a Christianity Explored course, watching a DVD, reading a book, or whatever is appropriate for that family. The desired outbox is that the family becomes part of the wider church family, understand the Christian faith for themselves, and begin living it out in every way.

Some diocesan clergy have suggested that this approach lacks compassion because, they believe, baptism is a means of grace which opens the gate of heaven. But this objection reminds me of the semi-apocryphal quip by a senior evangelical minister who reputedly said something like, ‘If all that was required of one for entry into heaven was baptism, I would be the first in line to buy a water cannon, take it to Piccadilly Circus and baptise anyone within range.’

Logistically it’s often impossible to prepare godparents because they often live far away, but parents who live locally have almost all appreciated being treated as unique and they are unanimously delighted that the church takes seriously the spiritual development of their child.

Far from being graceless and legalistic, then, the BCP rubric offers a great opportunity for grace-filled, gospel-centred evangelism. Its writers, as ever, provide a means for down-to-earth, timeless parish ministry.