2000
Barbara June Thomas Cheney
Holy Baptism: A Rite Transforming Diversity and Forming One Community
This thesis studies an urban congregation through the lens of baptism, looking for the relation of the public celebration of Holy Baptism to upholding and transforming diversity and forming one community. Through the use of narrative and story, the thesis studies baptism and the implications of its power to shape and develop a church community when baptism is given a pre-eminent and visible place in the life of the congregation. Insights from writers in the field of liturgical reform and baptismal ecclesiology, as well as insights from writers in the field of race relations and multi-cultural communities, inform this research. Information is gathered from church records, baptism preparation, guided interviews, field notes, and the lived and observed experience of the parish priest in the life of the congregation. The resulting picture is of a baptismal spirituality that creates holy ground on which people may stand together as equals before God and one another.