Amelia's baptism

Our daughter was baptized on Nov. 18th; sorry it took so long for me to post photos! It really was a wonderful time. My mother-in-law and her husband came down, and my grandma and parents and sister came to church with us on Sunday morning.


As someone who grew up in the evangelical community, I never really thought too much about baptizing babies. But recently, as I've become more convinced of the importance of the sacramental element in the life of the Body of Christ, I've become a paedobaptist (see here for a great article on the subject from a non Roman Catholic). I also like the Anglican's way of explaining baptism -- a way for salvation to be held in "trust" until the child is of age to receive it. I'm not a great theologian, so I'm sure the allegory breaks down at some point, but I think it shows something stronger than a baby dedication, while at the same time not saying it's a guarantee of life-long salvation. A decision still has to be made by the individual.

I've met people who are both strongly for and against the subject of infant baptism. I must confess I've always been fairly surprised that some evangelicals, while stating that there's nothing important about the actual act of baptism, that it's only a symbol and not a sacrament (similar to their views on communion, or Eucharist), are so adamant about baptism being a person's individual decision. If there's nothing "special" going on, why does it matter whether a person is baptized first and then accepts the gospel, or vice-versa? He or she is still fulfilling the commandments of believing and being baptized.