by Edward Lee

This month marks the 64th anniversary of my ordained ministries in The Episcopal Church, 58 of them before I finally retired full-time in 2017. Among the many tasks of those years, liturgical planning for Easter Day and Season services was certainly one of the more important for me. Looking back I think I got most of them right in their emphasis on the Resurrection and what it means to live in the holy reality and mission of the Risen Christ. Until this year!

In my current home parish of St. Mary’s Church in Ardmore, PA we are being served by a gifted young rector who arrived just months before the Covid pandemic hit us in March 2020. And St. Mary’s is his first parish as a rector. Yet he has guided us through two years of Zoom services with notable technical skills, pastoral sensitivity, and liturgical creativity, especially in Easter. Once we returned to “in person” services none of this has stopped. And this Easter he has folded into every Sunday liturgy a dimension that has warmed my baptismal heart. So much so that I could only exclaim to myself, “Why didn’t I ever think of this!”

Simply stated,  the connection between the Risen Life of Christ and Baptism is made manifest and explicit at the outset of the service.  Following the traditional Easter acclamation a Remembrance of Baptism begins the liturgy. It contains an opening prayer, three petitions, a summary prayer and then during the singing of the Gloria the congregation is generously sprinkled with holy water. It unfolds in about five minutes and continues with the usual Collect of the day and the appointed Lessons.

This Remembrance is not in the Book of Common Prayer or in any of the official alternative services. It’s a blend of Roman Catholic and Lutheran (ELCA) texts. In any future Episcopal worship revisions I believe something like it should be included. It’s a rite that would anchor the solemn and joyful realities of Baptism in the practice and mindfulness of the Church.

This concluding Remembrance prayer sets the tone for us to remember our own baptisms:

O God, through the waters of baptism, you have birthed us into the family of Christ, bathed us in forgiveness, and enlivened us in the Spirit, and for all these gifts, we are thankful. AMEN.