Hello everyone! My name is Brett and I am still new to the Anglican faith/Episcopal church. I want to become a member of my home church and get baptized but I need to learn more about this faith and the doctrine. Which I already agree with almost 90% of what the community expects and what values to follow. I consider myself a self- reborn individual because of my dark, drug riddled, occultic life I was living. I then gave my EVERYTHING to my Lord and savior, and my thinking and outlook has never been the same! I haven't been formally born again though with a Priest or Bishops. It's been almost a year since I have been attending my church in Massachusetts and I couldn't feel more at home here with the traditions, hymns, The Prayer Book is amazing as well. Let me know if I am missing the big picture because I feel renewed, loved by God, and I do want to live and will live a better, sober, light-filled life! Allelulia!
Welcome! I am an oldster that came back to God fully not long ago. I know the feeling of relief from doing so. God bless you on your journey.
It can be most uncomfortably embarrassing being dragged from the precipice and carried back to the fold draped round the shoulders of the Good Shepherd. Much safer than wandering about cliffs in the dark though. .
Hi, glad you joined. There is plenty of good info in past posts for you to explore. Do you mean to say you haven't yet been baptized? That should be the formal "next step" for a new Christian. If you haven't, I encourage you to have a talk soon with your rector about baptism.
Well, I have already talked about with Bishop Marty and he says he needs a record of my first baptism. Without that, he said its a little harder because Anglicans only believe in ONE baptism. So, I asked my mom and she doesn't have a clue where that record is from another state in 1992. So what do you guys think? I really love my church and I want to be an official member so bad.
There is something called a conditional Baptism. That might be the route to explore. What denomination were you Baptized in? They might have it on record somewhere.
Well, that's a whole different situation! You have been baptized, so according to Anglican teaching you have been welcomed into the visible Church. Yet this particular diocese demands a written record before they will "officially" recognize you as a member of that diocese & parish. First, can your mother recall what church you were baptized at? That parish should have a record. If not, here are a couple of options. 1. Say to the bishop, "Since we officially can't be at all sure I was ever baptized, shouldn't we assume I have not been baptized? How soon can I get baptized in my local church?" 2. Go to any Baptist church and ask to be baptized. Get a written statement and take it to your rector or bishop. Now you're eligible to become a baptized member of your parish, even though your baptism wasn't in the local church. Your official "one baptism" can be from any church. 3. Forget about being a card-carrying member of the diocese and parish. Attend, worship, participate. You don't need to be an "official" member of the visible church in order to be a Christian in right standing with God through Christ. If they don't let you serve as an acolyte or whatever, or someday sit on the vestry, it's their loss. (Actually I suspect they will be happy to let you volunteer as an usher or some things anyway.) 4. Look for a different parish/diocese in your area. If you're currently at a TEC parish, look for an ACNA parish... or vice versa. A different diocese might have different policies. (My rector never asked for any documents; he took my word that I'd been baptized... both in the RCC and the A/G. A while after I volunteered as lector and prayer minister, I was asked to lead the prayer ministry group as well as to sit in at the annual parish meeting & vote... and all this happened at least a year prior to my being "officially" received into the Anglican Church by the laying on of bishop's hands.)
Actually, belief in ONE baptism amounts to believing that only ONE baptism is necessary for salvation. St Paul would have probably even said even ONE is not strictly NECESSARY to ensure your salvation, Jesus Christ, and what he achieved, is your assurance of salvation. This is what makes Rexlion's advice sensible advice, I gave him a rare 'like' for it. If your baptism as an infant is not documented anywhere that is not your problem. I don't suppose St. Paul's was actually documented anywhere, (but Jesus' was, in some of the Gospels). The ONE baptism that everyone should believe only in, is the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and only Jesus Christ can administer that. .
If. your mother says you were baptized, then you are probably baptized. But if you are still unsure, ask about a conditional baptism.
Hi Brett, your story is similar in some ways to mine. I'm a recovering Alcoholic with the funkiest history you could imagine. I wish you well on your journey I am considering Anglicanism and I'm now wondering if I was to join, whether or not I'd need to be Baptised. I was Baptisted in the Baptist Church by total immersion as an adult. Looking at the discussions online it seems that Anglicans require one to have been Baptised in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and I assume they would consider mine valid, as the Church is a mainstream Christian denomination. On the other hand, I don't know if the actual wording in mine would qualify and it's making me wonder whether or not I'd need another Baptism. Hmmm ....
Ahoy Brett, In order to know where we are going, we have to know where we have been. God forgives freely to those wanting to change themselves for the better and not just those who follow an overly strict sort of purification code. A picture is worth a thousand words but it's depth is found in its framer! twin
Yes you do. If you've been attending regularly and paying attention you should have got some teaching from the sermons. But think if you were going to university and got a 10 minute lecture once a week; the amount of learning is obviously limited. If you ask about baptism/confirmation you should be offered classes. I was confirmed in my 30's and had to do confirmation classes. As Paul said to the Corinthians "I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. In fact, you are still not ready,". We all start on milk and progress to solids. See if Cursillo is available in your area.
There is always, in the search for a new faith community to be part of, a sense of knowing what we are looking for and often connected with that is the sense of not knowing what we are looking for, and in the moment of discovery a sense of these are my people and this is my tribe. Now sometimes that sense is instantaneous and sometimes it just creeps up on us, and we may not even recognise it till sometime later we realise that this has been the case for some time.
And sometimes what initially attracted us loses its appeal over time. Perhaps we start as a new believer in a church that feeds us milk but as we grow in the faith we will need a church that feeds us solid food.