[jeff@eli.wariat.org: baptisim] -Reply

• Messages sorted by:[ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]

>>>>> "Brandon" == Brandon Parker <Park4864@mailclerk.ecok.edu> writes:

    >>>> "Robert J. Brown" <rj@eli.wariat.org> 07/13/97 10:50pm >>>
    Brandon> ------- Start of forwarded message -------

    > I received this from a friend that works our nursing home
    > ministry with me.  He was responsible for starting this
    > ministry.  As the only licensed minister in the nursing
    > home ministry, I will be performing the baptism.  Bro
    > Jerry is our outreach director.  ************

    Brandon> Here is a question I have wanted to ask for a long time,
    Brandon> Why is it that anytime someone wants to be baptized, it
    Brandon> is always done by an licensed minister.  What happens
    Brandon> when a person askes to be baptized and we say wait till
    Brandon> to night at Sun. Night service and the persons dies one
    Brandon> hour after Sun. School.  Is that persons blood on the
    Brandon> hands of the church?  Why couldn't one of the memebers
    Brandon> baptize the person especially on a short notice?  Or does
    Brandon> the church not recon- ize it as being valid?  For example
    Brandon> if I baptized someone (I being just a musician and not a
    Brandon> preacher) Does the church require a rebaptism or what?
    Brandon> No one has ever explained this.  Of course I try to refer
    Brandon> them to the pastor for talking first, but I do believe if
    Brandon> no one else is around, I am not afraid to step up and do
    Brandon> it.  I have seen too many people lost or decide not to be
    Brandon> baptized because they were told to wait a month or a week
    Brandon> or the next service.  Now if the person says at the next
    Brandon> service they want to be baptized, then that is their
    Brandon> decision.  Just my questions and thoughts.

    Brandon> Brandon parker Baruch Hashem Adonai!!
 

In this case, if no licensed minister were available, one of the other
nursing home workers would perform the baptism.  The limiting factor
in this case is the availability of a place to baptize her, as she is
wheel chair bound and paralyzed on her left side.  I think the use of
licensed ministers to perform baptism is a convention rather than a
requirement.  Due to the legal nature (as a piece of identification)
of a baptismal certificate, and the sentiments of others as well as
the participant, the use of a licensed minister may add the appearance
of authority to the occasion, not that it is needed.  I believe any
Holy Ghost filled person can baptize if the occasion demands it.  How
else were the ministers at the turn of the century baptized?

-- 
--------  "And there came a writing to him from Elijah"  [2Ch 21:12]  --------
Robert Jay Brown III  rj@eli.wariat.org  http://eli.wariat.org  1 847 705-0424
Elijah Laboratories Inc.;  37 South Greenwood Avenue;  Palatine, IL 60067-6328
-----  M o d e l i n g   t h e   M e t h o d s   o f   t h e   M i n d  ------