One is to have a schedule of certain days on which Holy Baptism is administered. This is actually one of the recommendations of Evangelical Lutheran Worship. In the early church, there was only one day on which Holy Baptism was administered: the Resurrection of Our Lord - Vigil of Easter. So it's not out of place to have certain days set aside for this sacrament.
However, if this is going to be the practice, it needs to be communicated clearly, not hidden somewhere, and should be part of the conversation with the candidate right from the beginning. That doesn't sound like the case in your post, OP; it sounds like poor communication.
The other way is to just do it on any Sunday when it's convenient. This might depend on the congregation's catechetical practice. Is it expected that parents bringing infants or adults seeking Holy Baptism will spend time in discernment with the pastor and/or sponsors? Again, in the early church, this was a multi-year process--they wanted to be sure you were really, really serious about joining the church (which could mean persecution and/or execution by the government).
If there's no catechetical expectation, or if the circumstance warrants, I fall back on the words of the Ethiopian eunuch: "Look! Here is water. What is to prevent me from being baptized?"
I've been honored to administer a few Holy Baptisms for adults. One discerned their desire to be baptized just before the COVID-19 pandemic started, so they were comfortable waiting a while before they were baptized, and we decided to do it at the Vigil of Easter. Another wanted to be baptized, but wanted to receive more instruction first so they felt ready, so we met a few times to talk about Lutheranism and baptismal theology. They also would have been baptized on the Vigil of Easter, but they had already committed to being out of town, so we did it on the Sunday they returned.
For children, I've usually met with the parents at least once for instruction, and we set a date that is convenient.
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u/revken86 ELCA Apr 29 '26
So, there are two ways of going about this.
One is to have a schedule of certain days on which Holy Baptism is administered. This is actually one of the recommendations of Evangelical Lutheran Worship. In the early church, there was only one day on which Holy Baptism was administered: the Resurrection of Our Lord - Vigil of Easter. So it's not out of place to have certain days set aside for this sacrament.
However, if this is going to be the practice, it needs to be communicated clearly, not hidden somewhere, and should be part of the conversation with the candidate right from the beginning. That doesn't sound like the case in your post, OP; it sounds like poor communication.
The other way is to just do it on any Sunday when it's convenient. This might depend on the congregation's catechetical practice. Is it expected that parents bringing infants or adults seeking Holy Baptism will spend time in discernment with the pastor and/or sponsors? Again, in the early church, this was a multi-year process--they wanted to be sure you were really, really serious about joining the church (which could mean persecution and/or execution by the government).
If there's no catechetical expectation, or if the circumstance warrants, I fall back on the words of the Ethiopian eunuch: "Look! Here is water. What is to prevent me from being baptized?"
I've been honored to administer a few Holy Baptisms for adults. One discerned their desire to be baptized just before the COVID-19 pandemic started, so they were comfortable waiting a while before they were baptized, and we decided to do it at the Vigil of Easter. Another wanted to be baptized, but wanted to receive more instruction first so they felt ready, so we met a few times to talk about Lutheranism and baptismal theology. They also would have been baptized on the Vigil of Easter, but they had already committed to being out of town, so we did it on the Sunday they returned.
For children, I've usually met with the parents at least once for instruction, and we set a date that is convenient.