infant baptism

[M44]

CAn you lovely mumsnetters help me out here.

I was baptised as an infant...something that i hate as not one person involved in the process kept their promises. No more detail than that as it is not so nice.

I found Christ through my friends and becuase of my history long to be baptised..full immersion ( for many reasons)....but the church I go to says a resounding NO....there is only one baptism.

The thought of certain people making decisions for me that has this consequence now is really bugging me.

Any thoughts?

I was "christened" as an infant, with similar experiences to you - no promises were kept.

Spent years agonising over it, but was finally baptised (when we moved house and ended up in a Baptist church) 3 years ago. It was an amazing experience (even though I had been a Christian since I was 16!) and I am so glad I did it.

Yes there is only "one baptism" - but I (and dh, who had had similar experiences) figured that we had not really been baptised as we were not baptised by believing parents.

We have chosen not to have our children baptised (well, in our church we can't but we went to a church that went for paedobaptism when they were born) so that they don't go through the theological agonising we had to do.

Ask away - what else do you want to know about it?

You can only have one baptism, but you can reaffirm your baptism vows. This is really common at confirmation.

We regularly have reaffirmations of baptism vows at our church, complete with full immersion.

Congratulations on your journey

MmeB - yes, you can only have one Baptism.

Mine was 3 years ago. It wasn't the one when I was an infant!

We're in similar quandry only our evengelical church is asking if we would like to be...(we were baptised-full immersion-as babies by christian parents)

conclusions - the baptism probably still stands but as I see it baptism is a public declaration of where you stand (ie to show to others) so if we did it again it would be like reaffirming marriage vows.

can't understand why your church wouldn't want to - its a great way to share journey with & invite other friends

have been a christian for years...not a new thing at all!!

Mmeblueberry- what falvour of church do you attend?

If it was a renewal with full immersion...fine. It is the immersion bit that is important......because of my history. Going down in the water and coming back up again...'cleansed'!

Vicar says no!! NOt even for renewal.

weegie...you are saying you were or weren't baptised as a baby?

Church of England, M44.

Even the bishop gets in the tank!

ok.....which diocese are you?

Guildford

All baptismal vows are renewed each year at Easter, and every time you enter a church you are meant to bless yourself with holy water to remind yourself of your baptism.

Your baptism is still valid as it doesn't depend on the faith of your parents or godparents but on the faith of the whole church.

Not all churches have holy water, shoshana, and many churches will have issues with having power in created things.

Baptists have no difficulty with re-baptising people who have been baptised as infants. My dh was baptised by full immersion at a Baptist church even though he was baptised as an infant and confirmed by the Bishop of Australia, I was not because I remember my baptism (I was 11 and renewed that promise in a full confession of faith at a Dutch Reformed Church and also by confirmation in the CofE).
It is sad that your vicar says no to it, although I can understand that he would consider the promises of God made on your baptism of more importance than the promises of your parents. He would want to emphasise that God is faithful even if your parents were not.

I really sympathise. I was in the same situation several years ago. Basically, churches that practice infant baptism won't baptise you again.

You could approach another church, like baptists or other evangelical. They believe that your earlier baptism was not valid as you had no choice in it, so they will baptise you again.

What I did though, was spoke to my vicar (I was at CoE church at the time). He agreed that I could have a "reaffirmation of baptismal vows by immersion". I said the same words as are used in a baptism, and for me (and probably the vicar) it was a baptism though in the official eyes of the church is wasn't

Thinking about it, there ARE conditional words of baptism, for use where the person isn't sure whether or not they've been baptized, which are: "If you are not baptized, then I baptize you in the name of... etc".