Revised Baptismal Ritual Now Available

The General Board of Discipleship Worship Web site now has, in addition to an article about the revisions made to the baptismal ritual, the full baptismal ritual itself revised to align with all of the changes that have occurred up to and including the 2008 Book of Discipline.

The new resource, called “The Services of The Baptismal Covenant in The United Methodist Church as Revised to Align with the 2008 Book of Discipline and Book of Resolutions,” is available at: http://www.gbod.org/worship/baptismal-ritual-revised.pdf; the HTML version is now online at http://www.gbod.org/worship/baptism-ritual/default.html.

Persons looking for guidance on receiving new affiliate and associate members may visit: http://www.gbod.org/worship/default.asp?act=reader&item_id=43820&loc_id=9,824.

While PDF and HTML versions of the full texts are now available, GBOD is still in the process of developing several other formats to deliver this resource, including a Word document and booklet-form PDFs for congregations to print to insert in their hymnals or pew racks as needed.

GBOD was granted permission by The United Methodist Publishing House to develop and publish online this new resource for congregations under the copyright of The United Methodist Publishing House.

In addition to the changes made to the ritual texts by the 2008 General Conference, the new resource updates language about membership clarifying the terminology about how we receive baptized and professing members and persons from other denominations. This clarification is based on “By Water and the Spirit” and changes to paragraph 225 in the 2008 Discipline. The changes also include instructions (in italics) that offer guidance for the role of Deacons in Full Connection in the sacrament.

The ritual as it appears in The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) and The United Methodist Book of Worship (1992) was created before The United Methodist Church instituted the Order of Deacons (1996).

While changes to the rubrics have not been specifically approved by General Conference, the 2008 Book of Discipline authorizes the General Board of Discipleship to offer new resources to the church that “set forth and interpret the biblical and theological basis for corporate worship… consistent with the doctrines of The United Methodist Church” (Paragraph 1114) and to “prepare revisions of the ritual of the Church and approved orders of worship for recommendation to the General Conference for adoption” (Paragraph 1114.4). This new resource, and the family of additional formats that will accompany it, are offered to the denomination in that spirit.