www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization tripple immersion baptism

in the event of Metropolitan Stefan's pastoral letter on the return to original practice of tripple immersion baptism. my question would be to anyone who has ever witnessed it, how does it work? i have only seen it portrayed in old icons and frescoes, such as the baptism of st. augustine of hippo, but will it be similar to that or a modified version? thanks

We have them all the time at St. Georges.

Fr. Frank delightfully dips the infants through the water three times - going from one side of the pool to the other - head first, face up, glided slightly under the water, the whole body is immmersed in the water. You can get an idea of how Fr. dips the babies from these pictures of Baptism. http://www.melkite.org/Baptism.html

If an adult - our pool is four feet deep about three feet wide - they are dunked three times, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The babies do rather well, really very little complaining. Our pool is where the confessionals use to be , so the area has curtains around it. With adults they are pulled so they can dawn their white Baptismal gown.

The Baptismal font is now the base of the altar. Where it use to sit on the opposite side of the church is now where the tomb of Christ sits during the rest of the year with the Epitaphios so it can be venerated.
http://www.melkite.org/HolyWeek/HFrid.html

So St. Georges is much richer in it's history after the remodeling of the Church about six years ago.

Pani Rose

Hmmmmm. I learned something new here tonight. Thanks. I knew about the babies but didn't realize they dunked the adults three times. Assume you were saying once in the Name of the Father, once in the Name of the Son, and once in the Name of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus was baptised in the Jordan the scripture says that "he came up out of the water." so sounds like he was dunked too.

I enjoyed the pictures.

God Bless,

Jo

Thanks Porter. We have new pictures that are going up some time in the future, hopefully they will be much lighter so it will be easier to see what our Church looks like. Yes, one time for each Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. IT is a wonderful sight to behold.

Good to see but long overdue. Very interesting that the new metropolitan has been a student at the Orientalium. I think we can expect some interesting things from this man. They have still a long way to go to get rid of their uniatism.

Within the Protestant realm, there is a group called "Grace Brethren Fellowship of Churches" and they practice triple immersion, something like what Pani Rose described, one dip per Person in the Trinity.

Byzantine Catholics don't baptize by triple immersion? Is that really true?

Andrew

We had a baptism on Sunday at my Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic parish--the child was immersed 3 times in the font.

If Catholic baptism is done by immersion it is required to have triple immersion just as when baptism is done by pouring it is done 3 times over the head.

If done right all Byzantine baptism should be by immersion. However in slavish immitation of the Latins some copied them. However as usually happens when this happens the Latins move on and the Eastern Rites are left holding to yesterdays Latin customs and practices. We still use old Latin confessionals here while Latins stopped using them over 2o yrs ago. We still have three big candles and one small one on each side of the altar (the new Bishop got rid of that in the cathedral) in immitation of pre Vatican II Latin churches. So it goes on...

We baptize by triple immersion in our Latin parish all the time!
Stephanos I

I myself was baptized as an adult in the Melkite Church; I can confirm both that there was indeed enough room for me in the font, and that it was indeed done by triple immersion.

The idea that some Eastern Catholic churches do not baptize by triple immersion likely surprises me as much as it does Andrew. Pavel probably explains how things came to be that way, and that is unfortunate.

God bless,
Maximos

Ours are by triple immersion, no matter the age. Father does infants very quickly so they do not ingest any water. My wife and kids and I were baptized in a horse trough.

Andrew

Dear Andrew,

Weren't you Roman Catholic before? Why were you rebaptized?

Alice

Alice,

I was told by a ROCOR priest that many Orthodox re-baptize Catholic converts since the changes of Vatican II. They want to make sure they were baptized correctly.

Reading all the horror stories about illegitimate baptisms in the Roman Catholic Church, I can't blame the Orthodox for there position.

Another side point I think Vatican II will be a big discussion point if any reunion between the Churches occurs.

Is this not against the canons? I thought conversion consisted of the Sacrament of Penance followed by the Sacrament of Chrismation, since baptisms are done in the name of the Holy Trinity?