“Each candidate shared such varied stories of why they wanted to get baptised… Jacob, aged 19, came to faith after hearing the vicar give a simple Christmas talk for the sixth form assembly. He said, ‘I’ve no idea what John said, but I remember thinking it made sense, and I found myself coming to church’.”
The annual adults and teenagers’ baptism service at St Andrew’s Churchdown took place on 7 July, with five of the baptisms featuring young people.
The Revd John Monaghan, vicar of St Andrew’s and St Bartholomew’s Churchdown, said: “This year, we had ten candidates roughly from ages 12 to 60, all suitably dressed in swimming shorts and t-shirts, ready for the big celebration.
“Each candidate shared such varied stories of why they wanted to get baptised. Some had come to this point through attending our annual Alpha course after Christmas. Jacob, aged 19, came to faith after hearing the vicar give a simple Christmas talk for the sixth form assembly. He said, ‘I’ve no idea what John said, but I remember thinking it made sense, and so I found myself coming to church’.
“For Tamsin, who is in her 20’s, it was about coming back to a living relationship with Jesus after a time of walking her own way.
“For Cameron, who is 30 years old, it was by starting to come to church afterwards. Cameron found that, when he sang the hymns and songs, the words about Jesus suddenly became real to him.
“Other teenagers talked about wanting to say a big ‘yes’ to Jesus, more so than living their own way and doing what all their friends at school were doing.
“After the tenth candidate had shared their story, there wasn’t a dry eye in the place!”
This year’s event continued the church’s tradition of gathering at an outdoor pool, provided by a couple from the congregation.
“The service allows people to publicly say ‘yes’ to Jesus, go down into the waters of baptism, and come up again to a rapturous applause by their new church family”, John explained. “We really felt like we were caught up in the rejoicing in heaven – Luke 15 – that was happening that day.
“Let’s continue to pray for people of all ages across our diocese to come to a living faith in Jesus, and please pray that all of our churches would be helped to have a culture of nurturing new disciples, as we all continue to grow up into maturity in the Lord (Heb 6:1) together.”