Baptism

Looking at a newborn or very small child with open eyes, we sense that this tiny being has come from another world. For many parents, this feeling – whether conscious or unspoken – leads them to request Baptism for their child. What actually happens in the Baptism of The Christian Community?

The Connection with Heaven and Earth

We come from a heavenly world in order to dwell in our bodies on the earth. Through conception, birth, and growth, heaven and earth become bound together in each human life.

Living between two worlds, we may lose our balance: becoming so attached to earthly things that the divine fades from view or so withdrawn into the spiritual that we fail to meet the world fully. Neither is the Christian ideal.

Baptism establishes a living balance in both directions – towards heaven and towards earth. Christ himself opened this connection, coming from heaven and freely uniting himself with earthly life.

Baptism into a Free Community

At birth we belong naturally to many circles – our family, our culture, our language. These are given to us, not chosen. Baptism, however, places the child within a freely gathered community that exists for a single purpose: to seek Christ.

In The Christian Community, belonging is not based on shared background or preference, but on a shared intention that arises ever anew. Each person’s freedom is protected; no one’s choice or sympathy is forced.

Children’s Baptism – Not Yet Membership

In early Christianity, only adults were baptised, as a conscious decision of faith. Later, children were baptised so that they would not die unbaptised, and membership became automatic.

In The Christian Community, adults are baptised only in exceptional cases. Their connection with the community is formed instead through the Communion service – the Act of Consecration of Man.

Our Baptismal ritual is intended for children. The child is welcomed and held by the community, but not made a member. The question of future belonging remains open, to be decided freely when the child is grown.

Baptism and the Sunday Service for Children

To baptise a child is like planting a seed. Whoever plants must also care for the young life so that it may grow.

Parents who choose Baptism begin a path of nurture and prayer. It may include celebrating the festivals of the year, saying grace at meals, or simple bedtime prayers. With school age, the path leads again to the altar in the Sunday Service for Children.

Through these rhythms, the Baptismal seed takes root and deepens. When the child reaches fourteen, a new step becomes possible – Confirmation.

Water, Salt, and Ash

Until puberty, the child is still on a journey from heaven to earth. In the Baptism of The Christian CommunUntil puberty, the child is still journeying from heaven to earth. In The Christian Community, the child is not immersed in water but touched with three consecrated substances: water, salt, and ash.

• The forehead is touched with water – awakening clear, living thought.

• The chin is touched with salt – giving strength and purpose to the will.

• The chest is touched with ash – kindling warmth and renewal in the heart.

These acts unite the child’s growing life with the power of Christ, who brings the heavenly forces into the earth.

Why Godparents?

In early Christianity, adults renounced their old faith and spoke the Creed themselves. When children began to be baptised, godparents took on this role, later also pledging care if the parents died.

In The Christian Community, godparents accompany their godchild inwardly. They stand beside the parents, not in their place, holding the child in prayer and goodwill – like quiet guardian angels. They help the child stay connected with Christ and with the divine image within.

Anyone who nurtures their own relationship to Christ, and can walk before the child on this path, may become a godparent.

Original text by Claudio Holland.
Adapted and abbreviated by Tom Ravetz