FIDDES Baptism and the Process of Christian Initiation 283
not one isolated moment of baptism with another, but the whole se-
quence of events which mark the beginning of the Christian life and
discipleship.^8
However, appeal to a common process of Christian beginnings, or a
common/ourney into faith and salvation, is not so straightforward a move
as it appears to be, since it runs somewhat against the stream of another
momentum of thought which has swelled larger since the publication of
BEM. There is a widely held view that there should be a 'unified rite' of
initiation, bringing the aspects which have been variously signified by
baptism, chrismation/confirmation and first communion as close together
as possible.^9 The influence of Orthodox baptismal theology here has been
pervasive, but among western Protestant paedobaptist churches it has not
led to a sequence of rites closely linked in time, but rather to a different
kind of 'integration'. In this approach, the gift of the Spirit and incorpo-
ration into Christ is located entirely in the event of water-baptism itself;
any act of anointing or laying on of hands that follows baptism, whether at
the time (Orthodox chrismation) or later on (western 'confirmation')
cannot be seen as part of sacramental initiation, though they are part of
Christian growth. In the case of infants, first communion is not actually
connected to baptism (as in Orthodoxy), but it is integrated in so far as
baptism alone is sufficient to admit to the eucharist.
This new western pattern loses the process of initiation displayed in
Orthodoxy, although in compressed form. Nor can initiation be aligned
with a gradual process of growth in faith and grace over a number of
years, such as Baptist theologians think desirable for those who begin their
journey with baptism as a very young infant. My aim here is thus to exam-
ine the reasons for this desire to affirm 'complete sacramental initiation' in
baptism, to tease out some of its implications, and to explore the alterna-
tive possibilities of an initiatory process. Might it be possible to affirm
- E.g. Believing and Being Baptized: Baptism, So-Called Re-Baptism, and Chil-
dren in the Church (Didcot: Baptist Union of Great Britain, 1996), pp. 28-33; Paul S.
Fiddes, Believers' Baptism: An Act of Inclusion or Exclusion? (Hertfordshire Baptist
Association, 1999), pp. 14-15; S. MarkHeim, 'Baptismal Recognition and the Baptist
Churches', in Root and Saarinen (eds.), Baptism and the Unity of the Church, pp. 150-
63 (156-59,162-63); George R. Beasley-Murray, 'The Problem of Infant Baptism: An
Exercise in Possibilities', in Festschrift Giinther Wagner (ed. by the Faculty of Baptist
Theological Seminary, Ruschlikon; Bern: Peter Lang, 1994), pp. 1-14 (12-13). - In addition to the Anglican documents I examine in this article, see a Lutheran
view by Eugene L. Brand, 'Rites of Initiation as Signs of Unity', in Root and Saarinen
(eds.), Baptism and the Unity of the Church, pp. 130-37 (134-36).