Oklahomans got dunked, splashed or sprinkled to mark Easter this year
Three metro area residents participated in a Christian ritual of renewal though they were strangers attending different houses of worship. h Dominique Armstrong, Kendrick Burden and little Clovis Liam McCrary were each baptized at a local church on Easter Sunday or the Saturday before the holiday. They were dunked, splashed or sprinkled with water, depending on their personal preference or their faith tradition. h “I was definitely dunked,” Armstrong said, laughing as she thought about her experience at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church’s Baptism Bash.
Baptism is a rite of rebirth that is conducted throughout the year at Christian churches. However, local clergy say it is particularly meaningful at Easter.
Easter baptism follows a tradition that dates to the early Christian Church. Many churches follow the ancient rite because it is a customary part of the Easter season and because of the powerful symbolism it evokes for the baptismal candidate and the congregation. Religious leaders said the newly baptized readily identify with the theme of new life that typically resonates throughout Easter worship services.
Many denominations follow the baptism tradition of immersion. Following the Gospel tradition of John the Baptist immersing Jesus in water, ministers briefly plunge the baptismal candidate under water. Others may pour or splash water over the head of the baptismal candidate, while some sprinkle water on the forehead.
Most churches following the Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Episcopal faith traditions often schedule baptism ceremonies during the Easter Even and Great Easter Vigil services on the Saturday before Easter.
Armstrong, 36, stood out at Holy Trinity’s baptism event.
All of the other baptismal candidates at the Edmond church had water poured or splashed onto and over their foreheads, while Armstrong chose to participate in the Christian rite of rebirth through immersion.
The Rev. Jonathan Meyer first baptized Armstrong’s daughter Arya, 4, at one of the baptismal fonts. Then the preschooler got to watch as her mother was baptized during the Baptism Bash’s finale as the only immersion baptism.
Armstrong got into a galvanized water trough outside the church’s fellowship hall. People filed outdoors in the chilly weather to watch as she was dipped under the water by Meyer and the Rev. Justin Bangert, one of the church’s associate pastors.
Armstrong said she didn’t attend Holy Trinity but heard about the baptism event from a friend. She’d learned through her “god sister” that she had not been baptized as a youth as she originally thought.
“I thought I was baptized my whole life and come to find out I wasn’t,” Armstrong said.
Her decision to be baptized through immersion was simply a personal preference.
“I feel great!” she said. “I wanted to do it at first with just me, my husband and my daughter and the Lord just spoke to me and said ‘don’t deny me before man’ so I invited all my friends and family so they could also see this experience and have this experience with me.”
Meanwhile, Clovis Liam was dressed in pants, a white shirt and a dapper bowtie as his parents handed him to Meyer for baptism. The infant clutched his bottle and his mother’s eyes glistened with tears as the preacher gently lowered the child’s body closer to one of two baptismal fonts and poured a stream of water over his head.
“I present to you a child of God and an heir of salvation,” Meyer told the crowd, prompting people to applaud.
Like Clovis, Myles Peter Golowensky, 8 months, was dressed in white when Bangert baptized him at the baptismal font.
His mother, Megan Golowensky, said she and her husband Marshall deliberately dressed the infant in white and the color has symbolism tied to baptism. Early Christian converts donned white robes after they were baptized. The white garments symbolized purity and newness of life and became a powerful and tangible way to signify the life-altering spiritual transformation that had taken place.
In the baptistry
Burden was baptized on Easter Sunday at Northeast Missionary Baptist Church in Forest Park.
Being immersed in the waters of a baptistry is a time-honored tradition at many Baptist churches and other Protestant houses of worships, particularly at Easter.
The Rev. Michael McDaniel, Northeast Missionary Baptist’s senior pastor, said it was gratifying to have a baptism on Easter Sunday. He said the church typically holds baptisms on the first Sunday of the month but a coming event on the first Sunday in May caused church leaders to decide to have Burden baptized on Easter.
“We felt like this would be a great opportunity to have something so symbolic of the death, burial and resurrection as baptism,” McDaniel said. “I think the tone of our worship service really changed at the moment of that baptism that day. It was a pretty special day for us.”
Providing peace at Catholic parish
Many Catholic churches held baptisms during the Easter Vigil held on April 16, the day before Easter Sunday.
The Rev. Rick Stansberry, pastor of Our Lady’s Cathedral, 3214 N Lake Ave., said Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul S. Coakley baptized several people at the Easter Vigil at Our Lady’s.
The Rev. Jim Goins, pastor of St. Thomas More University Parish on the University of Oklahoma campus, said he performed one baptism at the Norman church’s Easter Vigil and he also conducted several in private ceremonies throughout Lent. However, Goins said his baptism experience was somewhat different than in years past because of a recent issue at an Arizona diocese.
Through baptism, men and women are incorporated into Christ and his Church, according to Catholic doctrine. It is a holy sacrament in the Catholic Church.
Earlier this year, the wording of the Catholic liturgy spoken during baptism was highlighted because an Arizona priest was found to have used a wrong word during baptisms he administered over the course of many years. Other instances of such misspeaking have occurred over the years, affecting numerous Catholics, including an Oklahoma priest, in various ways.
The Arizona clergyman reportedly said “We baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” instead of “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
A discrepancy in the administering of the baptism sacrament — an ancient ritual performed for centuries — is critical. The Vatican, through its doctrinal arm the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has said baptisms are invalid if the wrong wording is used.
Goins said several members of his parish became concerned about their own baptisms.
“People read that and people are truly anxious about their souls,” he said. “It was just sad to see people so distraught. They thought, if I was invalidly baptized, what is the state of my soul?’”
Goins said he began to do some research on behalf of the concerned parishioners who were converts to Catholicism. Most of them questioned whether their baptisms in Protestant churches were valid.
So Goins said he performed what are called “conditional baptisms” for people who felt the need to be rebaptized. He said in his research, he found only one or two situations where the exact circumstances of an individual’s baptism were uncertain.
He said he is very respectful of Protestant churches — he was first baptized in a Southern Baptist church years before he converted to Catholicism.
“I just had a wonderful experience and very beloved memories of my baptism,” he said.
The priest found that most of the prior baptisms were OK but he agreed to perform the conditional baptisms anyway.
Four of these baptisms were performed privately with the person and their sponsor during Lent and one was done publicly at the Easter Vigil.
Goins said each of these parishioners indicated they now feel a measure of comfort.
“I did it in order for people to find peace in their soul,” he said.