wfn.org | Approves Baptism Statement

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (2894 notes).

Note 2890 by SUSAN PEEK on April 22, 1996 at 22:48 Eastern (2452 characters).

SEARCH: Baptism, sacrament, confirmation, membership

028 {2892}                                          April 22, 1996

General Conference '96

Baptism study passes General Conference;
becomes interpretative statement

     DENVER, (UMNS) -- The United Methodist General Conference
unanimously approved a document that defines the role of baptism
in the church.

     The document is now an official interpretative statement of
the services of the Baptismal Covenant found in the 1989 Hymnal.

     The study of baptism, confirmation and church membership,
first mandated by the denomination's 1988 General Conference to
the churchwide Board of Discipleship, has taken eight years to
complete. 

      The Baptism study upholds the legitimacy of infant baptism,
discourages re-baptism and explains the relationship between
baptism as an infant and confirmation.

     The document is "one of the clearest affirmations of who we
are as United Methodists," said the Rev. Mark Trotter of San
Diego, chairman of the study committee. "It is a phenomenon of
United Methodists recovering the fullness and wholeness of their
tradition."

     Trotter explained during a Monday afternoon press conference 
that the study brings together both the sacramental and
evangelical traditions of church history and acknowledges god's
call of prevenient grace, which everyone receives from birth in
the sacrament of baptism. 

     He said the document also provides for an individual's
response by professing his or her commitment though the ceremonies
of Confirmation and Remembering One's Baptism as significant point
along the faith journey.

     The study report also created two new categories of church
membership. Currently, the church categorizes members as
"preparatory members"  and "full members." The new categories are
"Baptized Members" and "Professing Members." 

     The document says that people become members of the church
when they are baptized. The study report, prepared by a 16-member
committee, says an infant, child or adult who is baptized becomes
a member of the body of Christ, however church membership is
dependent on an individual's profession of faith.

     Trotter emphasized that the way churches count members for
the purpose of determining apportionments would not change. 
        
                               # # #
                                                    -- Linda Green
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