Common Worship Baptism Update - Sept 2000

The Initiation Services which were first authorised for use from Easter 1998, whilst full of good stuff, were found to give many churches liturgical indigestion. As a result, the General Synod has subsequently changed some of the notes and rubrics so that we have a greater flexibility to make the service work for our local congregations.

What follows has all been finalised in the past few months…

• New Pastoral Introduction.
  A brief explanation of the service for the congregation to read before the service. All the 'pastoral' services have introductions of this kind.
  
• Now optional:

• The president's introduction at the beginning.
• Readings preceding the Gospel.
  Now you need have only the one reading, if appropriate.
• Presentation of the candidates (as in the rubric – the following questions are still compulsory).
• The Intercession (but still use the Lord's Prayer).

• The Decision
  The ASB questions at the Decision have been put into the supplementary material, and may be used 'where there are strong pastoral reasons'. Some churches will be very relieved to know this.

• The Commission

• At the baptism of an infant, a new note explains that the gist of the text may be paraphrased either at the same point or in the sermon 'if pastoral circumstances require'. (The adult version remains optional.)
• The section which was originally restricted to use with those 'old enough to understand' can now be used in any circumstance.

• Miscellaneous points

• There must be a sermon.
  This closes up a couple of loop-holes!
• It is made clear that we can use any of the seasonal material at any time, should it be suitable.
• The 'Litany of the Resurrection' – an option available in the Supplementary texts – can be divided into two. The first half can be sung on the way to the font, and the second half on the way back.
  

Will these changes be in the book?

Most clergy will have been sent a 'Liturgical Bulletin' from Church House, outlining these changes. The Sunday book – Common Worship: Services and Prayers for the Church of England will incorporate the changes, so if you are using that, you will not be tripped up.

However, if you are using the green/cream Common Worship: Initiation Services (which is advisable, since it contains the full notes and supplementary texts in it, which the Sunday book does not) you would be best advised to go through it, pencilling in the changes. Thankfully, it doesn't take as long to do as it sounds.

Electronic forms of Common Worship should be incorporating the changes from the outset.

Combining the original service instructions with the new changes, we now find that the following features of the baptism service are optional:

• Prayer of Thanksgiving
• Introduction
• Readings preceding the Gospel
• Hymns, songs, psalms and canticles
• Presentation of the Candidates
  (ie as covered by the opening rubric in this section; the questions in this section still remain)
• Lighting a large candle
• Additional signing with Cross by parents, godparents and sponsors
• Clothing
• Anointing with oil
• Commission (although it needs to be paraphrased at some point, if the candidate is an infant)
• Prayer(s) at the Commission
• Prayers of Intercession
• Greeting the newly baptized/ exchanging the Peace (the corresponding action is optional but not the words)
• Blessing
• Giving of a Lighted Candle

It is unlikely that we would want to miss out all of these features, but when we recognise that there is so much that is left to our discretion, we will begin to see the scope for making the service work in our own situations.

More help at hand

If you would like to read further about the Common Worship Baptism service and how to use it in a variety of situations, there's a helpful new publication by Gilly Myers in a series of commentaries on the new services published by Church House Publishing:

Using Common Worship: Initiation Gilly Myers (introduction by Jeremy Haselock)

Another book for the general booklist at the back of the folder:

Common Worship Today
an illustrated guide to Common Worship
Edited by Mark Earey and Gilly Myers and
written by members of the Group for Renewal of Worship

Purple folder contents