I have just been looking through Patterns and Prayers and Gathering for Worship at the questions that are suggested for Baptismal candidates -and they all seem different from what I recall being asked! As I have a tape recording of the service where I was done I can easily check out my recollection.
As I recall it, the three questions I was asked were along the lines of
- Do you believe in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit?
- Do you accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord?
- Is it of your own free choice that you come to Baptism?
The last of these is, in my experience widely used - and I intend to use it with our candidate - but not in any of the liturgies I've seen, many of which look remarkably as if they were lifted from BCP or RCIA.
So, what do others ask of their candidates?
Does everyone still have 'greeters' with towels?
Do people still give their testimonies?
Do candidates still get to choose a hymn?
Is now normal for ministers to have a co-dunker with them (an idea I quite like) and how is that person selected?
So many things they don't teach you at college!!!
I am hoping we can get this service done on 5th October, for one totally unspiritual reason - it is the 11th anniversary of my own dunking, hot on the heels of which came my sense of call to ordained ministry. I probably ought to warn my 70-something of this, but at least the BU would see her as too old for ordination!!