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Joined: May 2007
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I found a story or two that involved infant(s) dying after immersion baptism and the Priest involved is facing a manslaughter investigation.
Article regarding the allegation:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wor...d-baptism-article-1.200641#axzz2ePX9vPpJ


That starts me wondering, if this has happened - even one time - does that mean that parents should want an alternative form? Are there Eastern alternative forms that involve less than full immersion? Do any of you who have been trained to baptize or who have witnessed a ton of these know what exactly is the standard protocol, and if steps are regularly taken to protect the baby such as covering its mouth and or nose?

In the story, the Priest is accused of failing to do so. But on an Orthodox forum I read the comment: "I've been to several baptisms and have never seen the priest cover the infant's nose and mouth. I've gone on to Youtube to see the Orthodox baptisms posted there and could only find one video where a priest covers the infant's nose and mouth."
http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/forum/index.php?topic=29080.0

this is a similar accident that happened, at a Church that had broken from the Catholic Church but practiced immersion http://articles.latimes.com/1996-09-15/news/mn-44277_1_critical-condition

Last edited by searching east; 09/09/13 01:18 PM.
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Not looking to cause trouble. I love the beauty of the ceremony and am mostly convinced its perfectly fine, but wanted to reassure a questioner in family. Any reassurance or perspective would be nice as we have a baptism scheduled soon. I am not sure that the rarity of such occasions is all that great of an argument since it is scary enough if there is a tiny possibility. I am more interested in learning if the technique involved protects from this possibility.

Last edited by searching east; 09/09/13 01:15 PM.
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Za myr z'wysot ...
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Searching,

I have to admit, I have *never* heard of the priest covering the infant's mouth and nose during infant baptism--I'm not even sure how he would go about doing this.

Priests that I have spoken to about this follow a procedure in which the infant's mouth and nose never get submerged, which makes sense to me.

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Thanks for reply. Would love to hear if that is often the case... immersion where it is mostly immersed, but for all intents and purposes and spiritual ritual still essentially considered close enough to be immersion.

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Immersion would be the way to do it, but in the UGCC there is baptism by immersion or sprinkling over the head. In fact, the Ukrainian Orthodox here tend to go for sprinkling as well.

To drown a baby as happened here is just too horrific to imagine.

Alex

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I had started a thread about this a little over 3 years ago: https://www.byzcath.org/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/351016/1


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