Mike's musings

N., I baptise you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Those are the key words in the baptism service, a service that I took for the first time in my life. It's the first sacrament that I've ever administered, and I'm very humbled to have had the chance.

You'll notice that the words start with "N.". This is where the person taking the service puts in the first (Christian) names of the person to be baptised: the baptism service has always been partly a naming service.

I should say "this is where the person taking the service is supposed to put in the first (Christian) names of the person to be baptised." I forgot. This isn't so good, and it's something I won't do again in a hurry. Luckily, I remembered while we were still at the font and remedied the situation in time. John, my training incumbent was there, and was fine about it. I 'fessed up to James, the other curate, and I expect to get some stick from him. I was expecting to get a whole lot of stick from my father, too, but it turns out that he did exactly the same thing at his first baptism. :-)

Labels: sacraments