At my student pastor church in Wanatah, Indiana, Gladys Land was the best housekeeper and custodian any church ever had. The church was absolutely clean for Sunday morning services Committee members, trustees, and everyone else always had a clean room to meet in. Chairs would be dusted and put in place. Carpets were always swept. Hymnals were placed in proper racks. Old bulletins were picked up and destroyed. If we had a baptism scheduled, Gladys cleaned the baptismal font completely and she always added fresh, cool water in the baptismal bowl.
One Easter Sunday we had several baptisms scheduled. When we came to that point in the service, parents brought their wonderfully dressed babies to the front of the church, gathering around the baptismal font. I had said all the nice words required by the UM Discipline and introduced the babies so their parents could turn around and show them to the entire congregation. What a build up for a wonderful service! Everything was ready to start with Baby Number 1. In our tradition we had even handed out fresh new roses to each of the families.
Everything had been done and anticipation had been built and I had Baby Number One in my arms ready to sprinkle the cool fresh water on the baby's head. But to my surprise, there was no fresh cool water in the baptismal bowl. Gladys had dumped the water and dying rose stems from their containers the week before into the baptismal bowl planning to clean the bowl and add the fresh water just before the Easter service began.
But this time she forgot and I had only dirty water and dead rose stems in the baptismal bowl.
But all is well that ends well. I signaled to Gladys and immediately it came to her mind that she had forgotten to dump last week's rose stems, clean the bowl and provide us with cool fresh water. While she finished her task, we sang another hymn and then proceeded with the baptisms as planned.
Except for squirming babies waiting impatiently in their parents arms, everything went well.
The Bible doesn't say you can't squirm while being baptised.
After that day, thanks to Gladys, we always had fresh cool water in the bowl in the baptismal font.
1 comment:
That reminds me of the time when I was stationed at Fort Benning's Kelly Chapel. We cleaned out the refrigerator in the fellowship room which was also the refrigerator that we kept the wine and the water for the Catholic Service. There was a little pitcher of water and a little pitcher of wine that sat in a little glass tray. One of the chaplain's assistants (not me) decided that while we were cleaning out the fridge, he would set this little wine set in the freezer part. Well... we forgot it was up there and when the same chaplain's assistant had to get ready for service on Sunday morning, he remembered where it was and quickly got it out of the freezer. When the priest came to that part in the service for communion, he began to lift the water first and the whole kit and kaboodle went with it. Needless to say, we were all told about that at the Monday staff meeting. The priest was not a happy camper.
Coleen
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