tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5373833544766917458.post6831340782199412614..comments2024-02-05T12:58:03.949-05:00Comments on Wesleyan/Anglican: Infant Baptism IV: What Happens When Infants are Baptized?Todd A. Stepphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10712031457598684159noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5373833544766917458.post-90038225067610998462015-01-26T15:17:38.424-05:002015-01-26T15:17:38.424-05:00We were having issues with an old non-denomination...We were having issues with an old non-denominational church we used to attend a while back. My dad used to teach the college group there and these friends of ours were leaders in the middle school group but some other group ended up taking out the college group. And it was a room that they had all pitched into paint due to a previous compromise with an elder group who asked if they could switch (their group was too big for the smaller room--the elders let us paint it)!<br /><br />Any way, my parents stopped going to church for a while until I stumbled upon an Evangelical Covenant Church. Our friends discovered that a former middle school pastor at our old church had gone on to become a pastor at a Nazarene Church and so they would go back and forth between churches until eventually, due to the old church's STRONG stances on gender roles being taught to middle schoolers and high schoolers, they left that church permanently.<br /><br />I started finding the Evangelical Covenant Church a bit stale so I started attending a Ruthenian-Greek Catholic parish (not sure if you're aware of the uniate parishes). But the catechesis was mostly fixated on differentiating itself from other churches so I then started attending Mass with this local group that meets in a mausoleum nearby. They're with the Anglican Church in America (a denomination that nearly became Catholic) which has been responsible for collecting other Continuing Anglican denominations under us. It was there that I was baptized. Hence the Catholic sacramental influence.<br /><br />But just recently I noticed that both my family's friends and I actually have common ground for discussion--John Wesley. Wesley of course was an old high churchman (before the term was used to describe Anglo-Catholics). Of course, Wesley and I don't always get along as I prefer Anglicanism's more scholastic roots but there's some stuff to extract from him.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5373833544766917458.post-44374000160958208512015-01-24T19:47:09.421-05:002015-01-24T19:47:09.421-05:00Thank you for your comments.
I am a member of, an...Thank you for your comments.<br /><br />I am a member of, and hold holy orders through the Church of the Nazarene (which is a Wesleyan-holiness expression of Methodism). I currently serve as the pastor of two United Methodist churches. - My designation in the Church of the Nazarene is "Special Service / Interdenominational." In the United Methodist Church, I am designated "Other Methodist."<br /><br />(BTW, there are Nazarenes doing the very thing I am doing in other UM conferences, whose designation is not "Other Methodist." Those conferences are mistaken in their designation. HQ has stated that those serving from any World Methodist Council denomination should be designated "Other Methodist.")Todd A. Stepphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10712031457598684159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5373833544766917458.post-51964790797033775822015-01-24T19:12:19.223-05:002015-01-24T19:12:19.223-05:00Very accurate article. I agree 100%. In the Catech...Very accurate article. I agree 100%. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it states "Where infant Baptism has become the form in which this sacrament is usually celebrated, it has become a single act encapsulating the preparatory stages of Christian initiation in a very abridged way. By its very nature infant Baptism requires a post-baptismal catechumenate. Not only is there a need for instruction after Baptism, but also for the necessary flowering of baptismal grace in personal growth. The catechism has its proper place here." (CCC, 1231)<br /><br />Those who believe in the position of baptismal regeneration also note that one's baptism can even lose its sanctifying grace as well. Such has always been the position of the church and the need to renew this state of baptismal grace constantly via the sacraments of the church. This is expressed more deeply in the Catechism's statement on the sacrament of confession. Martin Luther also held this position.<br /><br />But as many Christians have also noted, it is in fact possible to be saved without baptism. St. Emerentiana was an unbaptized martyr. Of course, unbaptized is technically a misnomer as that is considered the baptism of blood. The thief on the cross was also considered to have been baptized with a baptism of desire.<br /><br />BTW, I thought you were UMC, not Nazarene. I have friends who are Nazarene.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com