Continuing the Reformation: Re-Visioning Baptism in the Episcopal Church

by Ruth A. Meyers

Overview

This book documents the Episcopal Church's developing focus on baptism within the context of the liturgical movement, the emerging understanding of the eucharist, prayer book revision, and the confirmation dilemma. Drawing on historical and contemporary sources, the author presents a credible case in support of her belief that a baptismal ecclesiology is emerging from these events that have enabled people to accept a radically different initiatory pattern in the church. This book exhibits clarity on the issues discussed with the support of solid scholarship and lucid writing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780898696974
Publisher:	Church Publishing
Publication date:	01/01/2000
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	294
File size:	499 KB

About the Author

Ruth A. Meyers is Dean of Academic Affairs and Hodges-Haynes Professor of Liturgics at Church Divinity School of the Pacific. She served as chair of The Episcopal Churchs Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music through the conclusion of the 2012–2015 triennium and teaches throughout the Anglican Communion. She lives outside Berkeley CA.

Read an Excerpt

CONTINUING THE REFORMATION

Re-Visioning Baptism in the Episcopal Church

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By Ruth A. Meyers

Church Publishing Incorporated

Copyright © 1997 Ruth A. Meyers
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-89869-195-5

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CHAPTER 1

The Traditional Anglican Pattern: Baptism, Confirmation, Admission to Communion

I am what is sometimes known as a "cradle Episcopalian." The child of active Episcopalians, I was baptized at the rather tender age of one month, confirmed when I was in the ninth grade after a full school year of confirmation classes, and admitted to communion at the time of my confirmation. My experience reflects the traditional Anglican pattern of Christian initiation, a pattern established by the first Anglican prayer books at the time of the Reformation in the sixteenth century and essentially unchanged until the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. But this pattern was the product of the rather complex evolution of baptism and confirmation in the life of the Church, an evolution that has been widely studied and discussed during the twentieth century. To understand the radical changes introduced in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, it is necessary to begin with a brief survey of this history.

The New Testament and the Early Church: A Single Initiatory Rite

Numerous references and allusions to baptism can be found in the New Testament, but nowhere is there a full description or text of a baptismal rite. The book of Acts includes several reports of baptisms as part of its story of the missionary spread of the Gospel, beginning with the baptism of three thousand converts in response to Peter's Pentecost sermon following the descent of the Spirit on the disciples (Acts 2). From these descriptions and from other New Testament references to baptism, we can conclude that baptism followed conversion and was administered with water in the name of Jesus or in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

While in several places the New Testament associates the gift of the Holy Spirit with baptism, there is no evidence for the regular administration of a rite bestowing the Spirit separate from baptism. Acts 8:14-17 tells of the journey of Peter and John to Samaria in order to lay hands on converts who had been baptized but had not received the Spirit, and Acts 19:1-6 relates Paul's encounter at Ephesus with disciples who had been baptized into John's baptism but did not know of the Holy Spirit. In each of these tales, the Holy Spirit is bestowed through laying on of hands by the apostles. But in Acts 10:44-48, the Spirit descends upon a group of Gentiles while Peter is preaching to them, and in response the converts are baptized. Elsewhere in Acts, baptisms are reported without any mention of the bestowal of the Spirit. The primary intent of each of these stories is not to provide an accurate description of the sacramental practice of the nascent church, but to bear witness to the missionary spread of the church, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

What can be learned from these reports of baptism and other New Testament references to baptism is that converts were initiated into Christian life by baptism with water in the name of Jesus or in the triune name. Baptism was interpreted as incorporation into the Christian community, cleansing from sin, rebirth, participation in Christ's death and resurrection, entrance into the reign of God, sealing with the Spirit, being clothed with Christ. Some of these metaphors suggest ritual actions, for example, anointing or putting on new garments. However, there is no conclusive evidence that such actions were customarily part of the baptismal rite during the first century.

As the Church grew and ritual practices developed, the multifaceted dimensions of baptism gradually came to be expressed symbolically through various interpretive gestures and actions, including anointing and the laying on of hands. The normative candidate was an adult, although from at least as early as the end of the second century, the children of believers, including infants, were incorporated into the Christian community by the same rite. Baptism culminated in the celebration of the eucharist, at which the newly baptized, including infants, were present and received communion for the first time. The bishop customarily presided at the initiatory rite, and by the fourth century, baptism was usually administered at the Easter vigil. No additional rite, for adults or for children, was considered necessary to complete Christian initiation.

The Middle Ages: Adaptation and Division of the Rite

The official recognition of the Church after the peace of Constantine (313) had a number of consequences for the Church's initiatory practice. Throughout the fourth century, large numbers of adults were initiated through an elaborate process that included several months or years of preparation (the "catechumenate"), culminating in the celebration of the initiatory rites at the Easter vigil. But as the empire came to be predominantly Christian, there remained few adult converts to be baptized, and the normative candidates were infants. The catechumenate was shortened and adjustments made to the preliminary rites. Baptism continued to be administered at the vigils of Easter and Pentecost, with exceptions permitted for those in danger of death. However, in the later Middle Ages, owing to concern about infants dying suddenly, without warning, baptism came to be allowed to infants at any time. By the fourteenth century, several synods required that baptism be administered within eight days of birth.

In the early Middle Ages, outside of Rome and central Italy, where dioceses were large and travel difficult, bishops could not be present at most celebrations of baptism. Instead, a priest administered the entire rite, including a single postbaptismal anointing and the concluding eucharist, and this was viewed as full Christian initiation. This continues to be the initiatory pattern of Eastern Orthodox churches today. But in Rome and the dioceses of central Italy, in addition to a postbaptismal anointing on the head by a priest, the bishop administered a second anointing on the forehead. In cases where a bishop was unable to be present for the rite, this final anointing could be readily supplied within a short period of time, effectively preserving a role for the bishop in Christian initiation.

When in the eighth century the rites of Rome were imposed by the emperor Charlemagne throughout the West, the Roman initiatory rite with its second postbaptismal anointing administered by a bishop gradually became the standard rite of western Christianity. However, due to the difficulty of travel and the negligence of bishops and parents, the rite did not function nearly as well outside of Rome. Often several years lapsed between baptism and the bishop's anointing, a rite which came to be called "confirmation." Local ecclesiastical councils began to adopt legislation setting maximum ages by which children should be confirmed and providing penalties for parents who did not comply. Eventually these maximum age limits came to be seen as minimum ages for confirmation.

As confirmation emerged as a separate rite administered several years after baptism, a theological rationale developed. Confirmation came to be understood as a strengthening of the Spirit, equipping the person for the spiritual battles of this world. Thomas Aquinas offered a biological analogy: baptism is to human birth as confirmation is to growth.

While confirmation gradually came to be administered several years after baptism, up until the twelfth century infants continued to be communicated at the time of their baptism, and the reception of communion was considered necessary to their salvation. However, in the ninth century a doctrine of sacramental realism began to emerge, emphasizing that in the eucharist the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Jesus. Eventually doubts arose as to the propriety of communicating infants, lest they desecrate the sacrament by spitting up the host. Infants began to be communicated with wine only, and by the thirteenth century, as the same sacramental realism resulted in the withdrawal of laity from receiving the chalice, infants ceased to be communicated at all. Legislation then restricted communion to those who had reached the age of discretion. In England, a Council of Lambeth, held under Archbishop John Peckham in 1281, decreed that no one should be admitted to communion until confirmed. The intent, however, was not to discourage communion, but rather to encourage parents to bring their children for confirmation.

The Reformation: Confirmation as a Profession of Faith

The reformers of the sixteenth century inherited a process of initiation that included infant baptism and, usually at the age of discretion (age seven or ten), an anointing by the bishop called "confirmation," followed by admission to communion. To this the reformers added their concern to provide members of the Church with a firmer foundation in the essentials of the faith.

Martin Luther and John Calvin denounced the medieval practice of confirmation as an idle and superstitious ceremony but saw great value in catechesis prior to admission to communion. While Luther and Calvin did not themselves introduce rites to replace confirmation, churches in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions gradually began to produce rites for adolescents to profess their faith and be admitted to communion.

In the Church of England, a rite of confirmation similar to the medieval rite was retained, but with imposition of hands by the bishop instead of anointing. However, in the prayer book the confirmation rite was prefaced by "a catechism for children," and children were required to learn the responses to this catechism as well as the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments prior to their confirmation. Moreover, the "confirmation rubric" requiring confirmation before admission to communion was retained, making admission to communion as well as confirmation contingent upon catechesis. An explicit profession of faith was added to the Anglican confirmation rite in 1662.

The more radical reformers abolished infant baptism altogether and introduced instead a practice of believers' baptism. This eliminated a separate rite of confirmation or profession of faith for those baptized in infancy. Yet in the following centuries, as churches in these traditions became more firmly established, rites of infant "dedication" became increasingly common. Furthermore, although conversion was requisite for baptism, the appropriate experience tended to occur at about the expected age. In short, although churches in believers' baptist traditions interpreted baptism quite differently from those in the Anglican, Lutheran and Reformed traditions, the initiatory patterns came to be quite similar. A rite in infancy was followed by catechesis throughout childhood, leading to a public ritual that included a profession of faith and granted admission to full communicant membership.

In the Roman Catholic tradition, the initiatory pattern was much the same. The Council of Trent in the sixteenth century issued several decrees that institutionalized the late medieval separation of baptism, confirmation and admission to communion. Up until that time, though rare in practice, it was possible for infants to be confirmed and admitted to communion. Well known examples include Prince Arthur and Princess Elizabeth in England. But the Council of Trent, while affirming the necessity of confirmation, directed that confirmation be postponed to the age of seven, if not age twelve, and likewise declared that children under the age of reason were under no obligation to receive the eucharist.

By the early twentieth century, in some places in the Roman Catholic Church, the customary age for first reception of communion had risen to age ten or twelve, or even fourteen or older. The decree Quam singulari issued in 1910 by the Sacred Congregation of the Sacraments under Pope Pius X, affirmed that the age for first communion was the age of reason, understood to be age seven and further defined as the age at which a child could discern eucharistic bread from ordinary bread. While the decree did not discuss confirmation, it had the effect of reversing the sequence of sacraments: first reception of communion began to precede confirmation in many congregations of the Roman Catholic Church. Eventually this practice encouraged Episcopalians to reconsider their pattern of Christian initiation, but in the early twentieth century, the inherited Reformation pattern remained firmly in place.

This Reformation pattern, evident in most American churches at the beginning of the twentieth century, reflected the era of Christendom, in which the entire society is presumed to be Christian, or at least to be based upon Christian values. Baptism (or, in believers' baptist traditions, a rite of infant dedication) was administered as a matter of course and was primarily a rite of passage marking physical birth, a social occasion significant in the lives of the immediate family and friends of the child. There was an assumption that Christian formation and nurture would occur through daily living as well as regular participation in Sunday School, because the values of Church, family and society were closely intertwined. At an appropriate age, usually at some point in adolescence, children made a public profession of faith (baptism, for believers' baptists), a rite marking growth and acceptance of "adult" responsibilities. Following this rite, young people were considered full communicant members of the Church. Glimpses of this process in the Episcopal Church can be found in pastoral manuals which helped clergy interpret the prayer book rubrics.

Baptism as a Private Rite

The 1892 Book of Common Prayer provided three versions of the rite of baptism: "The Ministration of Public Baptism of Infants, to be used in the church," "The Ministration of Private Baptism of Children, in houses," and "The Ministration of Baptism to such as are of Riper Years, and able to answer for themselves." While the baptismal rites in the sixteenth-century prayer books of the Church of England had assumed infant candidates, in the seventeenth century a rite for adults became necessary because of the neglect of the sacraments during the period of the Commonwealth, the growth of the Anabaptist movement (which practiced believers' baptism), and the desire to convert and baptize native people and slaves in the developing British colonies. Hence the 1662 English prayer book introduced a rite for adult baptism, modeled on that for the baptism of infants, and the American Episcopalian books of 1789 and 1892 followed suit. Nonetheless, in the early twentieth century, infant baptism continued to be the norm and adult baptism the exception.

In the 1892 Book of Common Prayer, the opening rubric of the service of public baptism of infants directed that "Baptism should not be administered but upon Sundays and other Holy-Days, or Prayer-Days." The English rite further specified that baptism was to be administered

when the most number of people come together; as well as for that the Congregation there present may testify the receiving of them that be newly baptized in the number of Christ's Church; as also because in the Baptism of Infants every man present may be put in remembrance of his own profession made to God in his Baptism.

This rationale for the administration of baptism on Sundays and holy days had been omitted from the first (1789) American prayer book, perhaps because most baptisms were being performed privately. Certainly by the early twentieth century, most baptisms were administered privately, in the presence of family and close friends but apart from the regularly scheduled worship of most parishes. Moreover, although the prayer book also directed that baptism be administered after the last lesson at Morning or Evening Prayer, this rubric was widely ignored. Authors of pastoral manuals made some attempts to stress the significance of public baptism, but their writings suggest that the prevailing custom was private, not public baptism.

In a text for use in his pastoral theology classes, William DeWitt, Dean of Western Theological Seminary in Chicago, acknowledged the significance of a public rite of baptism but allowed numerous exceptions to public baptism at the main Sunday service. In large parishes where it was likely that baptisms would occur nearly every Sunday, it was appropriate to limit to one or two Sundays each month the times at which children might be brought to be baptized. Alternatively, "a special congregation can usually be secured, by a little effort, for a Sunday afternoon baptismal service." Moreover, while the rubrics prefacing the rite of private baptism stipulated that children should not be baptized at home without "great cause and necessity," DeWitt opined that a mother's "pious reason that she wants no delay in making [the child] a member of Christ and the child of God" was sufficient cause. Although a child privately baptized should be brought to the church to be received by the congregation, DeWitt acknowledged that "it is usually difficult to get parents" to do so.
(Continues...)

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Excerpted from CONTINUING THE REFORMATION by Ruth A. Meyers. Copyright © 1997 Ruth A. Meyers. Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

1. The Traditional Anglican Pattern
2. The Emergence of a Eucharistic Ecclesiology
3. The Renewal of Baptism
4. The Dilemma of Confirmation
5. Admission to Communion
6. Turning Points
7. Toward a New Pattern of Christian Initiation: Communion of all the Baptized
8. Redefining Confirmation
9. The 1979 Baptismal Rite
10. Enriching the Prayer Book
11. Baptism and Reaffirmation of Faith

Includes appendices, bibliography, and index.