Previously I shared an old practice and use of baptismal salt as a part of the rite of baptism. (See: Holy Baptism - The Salt Of Baptism) Recently I have had the privilege of performing baptisms of two adults and was thus given the opportunity to think and preach about baptism and especially adult baptism. In my research I was able to delve into the nature of the baptismal rite and especially the differences between the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and the revised 1979 BCP. During the revision of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer there were many who charged that the new revision was a change in our theology - our understanding of how God interacts with the world. AND THESE CHARGES WERE CORRECT!
Even today there remain clergy and as laity who continue to attempt to use the 1979 BCP upon the same theological and sacramental understanding which undergirded the 1928 BCP. This misuse of the 1979 BCP restricts liturgy to its surface dimensions, so that what the rite is intended to say is undermined by the manner in which it is celebrated.
One example of this problem is illustrated in the revision of the baptismal rite. The baptismal rite of the 1928 BCP took as its model the baptism of a child or infant. Adult candidates are a clearly secondary expectation. The older rite further took for granted that baptism itself was a separate liturgical action and not connected to any other essential corporate celebration, such as the Sunday Eucharist. However the baptismal liturgy found in the 1979 BCP is really quite different in its expectations in this regard not only to the above matters but also in its nature. The revisions are not simply a matter of changes or adjustments of the texts, but rather more significantly, of the theology upon which Christian initiation is based.
The new baptismal rite, for example, establishes that an adult is now the normative candidate for baptism through the way the baptismal rite is constructed: adults and older children are presented first [1979 BCP, pg. 301], thus pointing to a theological priority for those who can speak for themselves. Additionally, the way the baptismal rite is introduced in the service rubrics indicates that the standard pattern should be the celebration of baptism in the context of the Eucharist. This is supported by an introductory rubric to the rite: “Holy Baptism is appropriately administered within the Eucharist as the chief service on a Sunday or other feast.” [1979 BCP, pg.298] This new baptismal rite consequently reverses the expectations upon which the former rite was based.
Such significant changes are not a matter of mere ritual updating but rather are indicative of a major shift in the theological understanding of the rite. This new structure breaks with the privatized model of baptism which had, in pastoral practices, dominated for centuries.
This shift in theology and liturgical practice is a result of much study of the history and theology of Christian initiation and is manifested at the level of pastoral practice. The rediscovered theology of initiation is directly related to the recovery of a biblical understanding of the Church as the people of God. The gospel of our participation in the paschal mystery through baptism is thereby reclaimed by changes in the liturgical rite which support such a theology.
But it does not stop there since this fundamental theological change has produced further changes. Because the celebration of baptism is now to be performed within the context of the Eucharist on Sunday, an opportunity is presented to reawaken the Church’s awareness of the essential link between the two sacraments, i.e. that baptism is entrance into the communion fellowship and that the Eucharist is itself a sacrament of initiation, the fulfillment of the process of the making of a Christian. This connection between these two sacraments has been obscured for centuries at the level of pastoral practice. Prior to the baptismal rite revision the Holy Eucharist had been separated from the rite of baptism and attached the Holy Eucharist to the rite of Confirmation which is associated with a certain level of intellectual understanding. Again, historical research in this area has borne fruit at the pastoral level by revealing the historically questionable influences which separated the interconnectedness of the rites of baptism and the Holy Eucharist and what had for centuries in Christian practice been understood as integrally related.
These matters concerning baptism and related issues are but one example of a whole complex of critical areas in which the mutuality between liturgy and doctrine may be seen. Liturgical change is the response in the Church to the awareness of God’s present imperatives within the community of faith.
The Book of Common Prayer is for Anglicans far more than a collection of liturgical rites. Within Anglicanism the Prayer Book is a living expression of the profound union between what we believe and what we pray. The 1979 BCP is a doctrinal document not because it contains didactic materials such as a catechism and historical documents of the Church of doctrinal significance but because it is in our corporate worship that Anglicans find the common ground for their profession of faith. It is in this sense that Anglicanism has never understood itself as a ‘confessional church’ in the way, for example, that Lutheranism has identified its faith with certain documents which are fundamental to its identity. Anglicanism has claimed no faith of its own but only that faith which the Church at all times and in all places has celebrated in its corporate worship.
One Response to “New Baptismal Theology? Adult Baptism”
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well thought out ‘Mr. Barbower’!