Baptism: the Friday Five

The RevGals Friday Five is about baptism this week. I saw it at Diane's and Wyldth1ng's blogs.

1. When and where were you baptized? Do you remember it? Know any interesting tidbits?
I was baptized through the First Baptist Church of Fresno by the Rev. Bernie G. Osterhouse in March 1957. The church did not yet have a baptistry, so the baptisms took place in the First Christian Church in downtown Fresno. Since I was almost 11 at the time I do remember scattered images of it. We are, of course, talking full immersion here, which I still believe is preferable (though not required) as it vividly expresses death, burial, and being raised again.

2. What's the most unexpected thing you've ever witnessed at a baptism?
In person I am not sure I have witnessed anything particularly unexpected. But the most spectacular baptism for me was the Sunday I baptized 18 persons across four generations from one family. They were Cambodian-Americans whose family had been sponsored by Bishop Bill Swing and the Episcopal Diocese of California when they came to California from the refugee camps in Thailand. Many had been baptized on Pentecost a couple of decades earlier in St Paul's, Oakland. Now most of the rest were finally baptized, including the patriarch and matriarch, some of their children, many of their grandchildren, and a couple of great-grandchildren. We flexed on the timing (it was neither Easter Day nor Pentecost but it was on a Sunday in Easter). I felt Resurrection everywhere I turned that day.

3. Does your congregation have any special traditions surrounding baptisms?
St Cuddy's had a restored ancient tradition of giving a spoonful of milk and honey to the neophytes.

4. Are you a godparent or baptismal sponsor? Have a story to tell?
Yes, though I am a fairly rotten godparent. I do keep them in my prayers but little else.

5. Do you have a favorite baptismal song or hymn?
At St Cuddy's we always sang Hymn # 296, "We know that Christ is raised and dies no more" (tune: Engelberg). I love the energy of that tune and the reference to Christ's Body taking on new flesh and blood (in the baptized).

--the BB