FlDDES Baptism and the Process of Christian Initiation 281
show, was the dominant mood of the earlier Faith and Order Paper Bap-
tism, Eucharist and Ministry {BEM), despite its apparent slogan of 'our
common baptism' through which 'Christians are brought into union with
Christ, with each other, and with the Church of every time and place'.^2
Indeed, the idea of a process of initiation is not only a potential basis for
unity, but is one major reason why appeal to a 'common baptism' seems
less than adequate. Orthodox Churches find the event of initiation to be
larger than the event of baptism itself, which is to be regarded as only one
moment in three closely linked sacraments of initiation. One Orthodox
response to BEM, for instance, asks for a clearer statement of 'the relationbetween baptism, chrismation and the eucharist which are constitutive of
the Christian initiation'.^3
Baptists also reckon with a process of initiation. Within their own prac-
tice of the baptism of believers, as with the baptism of adults in all Chris-
tian communions, there has to be some kind of process between the
moments of conversion and baptism. The first directing of conscious faith
towards Christ will be initiated by the grace of God, and must be accom-
panied by an act of the Holy Spirit bringing the believer into fellowship
with Christ. As James D.G. Dunn notes, in the thought of the Apostle Paul
'the Spirit is the beginning of the salvation process'; whatever relation this
had in temporal sequence to water-baptism, 'it was by receiving the Spirit
that one became a Christian'.^4 If we also want to affirm that believers are
'incorporated into Christ' through water-baptism, the 'beginning' of Chris-
tian life must therefore be an extended process or journey and not a single
point. This is even more evident in the case of children who, in Baptist
churches, may come to a living faith of their own years before they are
baptized. There would be no need to conceive of a process of initiation, of
course, if baptism were simply regarded as a public witness to what has
already taken place in the believer's life. This is characteristic of Pente-- Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (F&O Paper, 111; Geneva: WCC, 1982), p. 3,
para. 6. - The Romanian Orthodox Church, in Max Thurian (ed.), Churches Respond to
BEM: Official Responses to the 'Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry' Text (Geneva:
WCC, 1986-88), III, p. 6; similarly, the response of the Finnish Orthodox Church, vol.
II, p. 26; cf. the response of the Russian Orthodox Church, vol. II, p. 8. The Orthodox
Church has also, of course, ecclesiological reasons for questioning whether 'common
baptism' alone can be a basis for unity. - James D.G. Dunn, 'Baptism and the Unity of the Church in the New Testa-
ment', in Michael Root and Risto Saarinen (eds.), Baptism and the Unity of the Church
(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans; Geneva: WCC, 1998), pp. 78-103 (82-83).