FIDDES Baptism and the Process of Christian Initiation 293
A. Baptism 'as a Process'
On The Way thus moves a little towards the notion of a 'process of Chris-
tian initiation' for all believers, while rather awkwardly naming this as a
'sacramental' process only in the case of those baptized as adults. More
widespread, as we have seen, is the ascribing of process to Christian
development but not strictly to initiation, and this is increasingly being
characterized by the notion of 'baptism as a process'. The unwary reader
of ecumenical documents may suppose that the phrase 'the baptismal
process' is simply an equivalent for the 'process of initiation', but this is
not the case. The increasingly popular idea of 'baptism as a process' picks
up the second sense of process in BEM to which I drew attention earlier—
that 'baptism is related not only to momentary experience but to life-long
growth into Christ'. Baptism does not only stand at the beginning of this
growth, but stands as a symbol of it. The whole life of Christian disci-
pleship is characterized by a 'dying and rising with Christ', and death
itself may be seen as a final baptism into the Christ's own death and into
the hope of new life.
This analogy between the event of baptism and everyday living has been
thoroughly worked out in the report of the Faith and Order consultation
held at Faverges in 1997, and it was with an extract from this document
that I began this paper. The members of the Faverges group focus on the
traditional idea of an ordo or pattern of baptism, and they discern a struc-
ture in the extended event of baptism consisting of: (1) instruction in faith;
(2) washing in water; and (3) participation in the community. This pattern
characterizes the initial sequence of events of which baptism forms the
centre (catechesis—baptism—incorporation into Church); it can be found
recapitulated in miniature in the moment of baptism itself (confession of
faith—water—first eucharist), and it can be seen at large in the whole pat-
tern of life in Christ (life-long learning—daily dying and rising with
Christ—sharing in the reconciliation and mission of the Church). Thus the
ordo of baptism is a 'map for the pilgrimage'.^34
All this is evidently true, and it may be asked what can be possibly said
against it. The problem is when this concept of a 'process of baptism'
comes to replace entirely a 'process of initation', as in the statement of
Gordon Lathrop that 'our order corresponds most profoundly to the- Best and Heller (eds.), Becoming a Christian^ pp. 78-81.