Guidelines For Planning A Service Of The Renewal Of The Baptismal Covenant

Planning for the renewal of baptism must be undertaken with the need of the local worshiping community in mind. This article reflects on this service of renewal and proposes guidelines for the worship planning process.

Participants and Setting In most churches, the guiding of the act of the renewal and the voicing of the surrounding prayers will be in the hands of local clergy—the same person who has been pastor and counselor will be celebrant. (The Episcopal church reserves this presiding role at occasions of individual renewing of baptismal promises for the bishop.) The churches which are introducing this action commend the use of sponsors, who personalize the support of the congregation. Clearly, this act should be observed at a service where the congregation can give its welcome and pledge its continuing care. Whatever depths of unshared individual experience it may touch, the serious public reaffirmation of the common promises touches also the uniting, originating bonds in the shared life of a community of faith. It would seem advisable to correlate the occasions for such acts of public reaffirmation with high moments of the church year. By locating them so they would take some of their meaning from the christological structure of the church's ritual shaping of time—a factor which might keep them from being seen in merely biographical or psychological contexts. In most instances, correlation with the festivals and seasons of the Year of Grace would locate these actions on a Sunday morning service of Word and sacrament. The Actual Promises The reaffirmation is meant to tie one's present to one's deep past. The promises should be those of the baptism rite, probably without any addition or deletion. These promises must be basic, economically worded, and long-wearing. As the common, church-making promises, they should be said by the entire congregation, even though the reason for saying them may grow out of one person's specific experience. The persons who are making particular reaffirmation say the promises with their fellow Christians; the congregation says them with ones for whom the act has special and to some extent unshared significance. All are put in touch with their baptism and its pledges. There will usually be serious, soul-searching events behind the public reaffirmation. Sometimes such circumstances and struggles will be widely known in the congregation; at other times, they will be quite private. It would seem best to observe a public reticence concerning what brings each person to this moment in Christian experience. If the liturgical leader becomes chatty, or if the person making reaffirmation makes a speech in those cases in which personal revelation may be justified, it may call attention to those other cases in which too much said may be unwise at best or damaging at worst. Objectivity suits the occasion. The promises should include the Apostles' Creed, the form consented to by each Christian at baptism from the earliest generations of the church. The Apostles' Creed is an account of God and of divine redemption and promise, based on the apostolic preaching. In many churches in recent years, the creed has been joined, at baptism, with a few elemental pledges on the part of each Christian. If such promises to faithfulness in Christian duties are capable of being said by a diversified congregation, in a variety of situations, over a period of years, they must be basic in content and carefully worded. An idiosyncratic, preachy, overstated body of words will not wear well. Persons differ as to how articulate they are. Some sincere Christians who seek to restate the commitments of their baptism may be quite halting, especially in public. Rather than put them in an awkward position, it would seem best to keep the promises in dialogical form: the presiding person asking "?Do you believe ?…?"; Will you ?…?"; and the person reaffirming replying "?I do?" or "?I will.?" Lest the exchange seem bathed in unreality, the promiser's words should probably include a simple recognition of human weakness and of the difficulty of Christian obedience in our time. Words to the effect of "?I will … God helping me?" would be suitable.