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BI Update 44 (Summer 2002), page 10.
Update 44:
(Summer 2002)
Brooklyn
In the media
Giving thanks
The very best
What age?
On the way
Letters
Stevenson
Perkins
Funerals
Small Print
Letters and emails to BI
Many thanks for issues 42 and 43 of Update. Always interesting material to reflect on. I continue to admire the candour and transparency of the articles.
Thank you for sending the fascinating "sedition" (back copies of Update etc.). I was stunned by the cartoon on the front of "Integrity in Baptism": it is much too thought-provoking for comfort!
Dear John,
Clement of Alexandria seems to get himself into a verbal tangle very similar to Mark Earey's (Update 43 p10). Mark says infant baptism is in one sense complete and in another sense not. Clement is guilty of the same "double-speak" when on the one hand he asserts that a person becomes fully enlightened at the time of his baptism, but at the same time needs further illumination in so far as he acquires a greater understanding of the demands of discipleship.
Surely the right way of saying this would be to admit that infant baptism is bound to be incomplete in so far as it anticipates something we hope will happen in the future? Mark Earey is not the only one to have got into difficulties over baptismal doctrine!
Nigel Rowe.
Roger Godin reports that there are a stead stream of "hits" on our web site www.baptism.org.uk, most probably because we are linked to the C of E official site. We are also getting a few queries from web-page readers, as the following (anonymised) emails show:
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My young daughter has decided to be christened - a decision I wholeheartedly support. But she lives with her mother (we were married in the C of E but are now divorced), and her mother has chosen a godmother whom I consider to be quite an undesirable influence - indeed, partly responsible for the breakup of our marriage (in my view). What, if anything, can I do to prevent this person becoming my daughter's godmother?
If the parents have not been married in a religious ceremony, can their child still be christened? |
If you'd like to join the voluntary team of drafters of replies to queries like these, please email Roger!
In the review in Update 43 we omitted the details of Gordon Kuhrt's book: "An introduction to Christian Ministry - following your vocation in the Church of England": CHP 2000 £6.95 for xvi+128 pages.
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