Help with question about baptism

[Crazy Liz]

In one of the theology forums, someone posted that the notion of people being baptized naked is blasphemous. I was thinking both Messianics and Eastern Orthodox Christians would perhaps have some input on why this is not true. If you can help with this question, please take a look at http://www.christianforums.com/t737601.

Thanks!

 

[SaintGeorge]

Baptised naked ??? Well, I don't know. It would be a little awkward.

 

[Matrona]

Baptised naked ??? Well, I don't know. It would be a little awkward.

Nowadays, adults are rarely baptized naked, unless they're REALLY brave. Children who are too little to care get naked; but a child baptized later than five or six years will keep his clothes on because baptism should not be a traumatic, humiliating experience.

I was 19, and as you can see, I kept my clothes on.

 

[Photini]

Why in the world would it be considered blasphemy?

 

[MariaRegina]

I was told that at Lourdes, the sick go into the water naked, but they are surrounded by nurses and covered with sheets or towels except when they are in the water.

There was a woman who was baptized in the nude at St. Vladimir's Seminary. The women who served as her godmothers held up sheets to protect her from the gaze of the priest and the congregation. The priests said it was a strange experience, but the woman in obedience wanted to be baptized the way the ancient Christians were.

Some churches, such as the Coptic Churches, use heavy linen or burlap bags that people put on (without any underwear), then these garments are washed carefully in special sinks where the water goes into a rock pit reserved for such use. Then these garments are reused for the next baptism. Why are such precautions taken? The water is blessed for the Baptism.

 

[Basileus]

To be honest, I never really thought about it...




Matrona: I hate to say it, but if it wouldn't be a sacrilige, and I wouldn't have to go to confession and explain this to Fr. Dan, I would love to run that pic through Photoshop and make a few changes.

 

[Matrona]

Matrona: I hate to say it, but if it wouldn't be a sacrilige, and I wouldn't have to go to confession and explain this to Fr. Dan, I would love to run that pic through Photoshop and make a few changes.

/me cracks open Basileus's skull and washes that DIRTY MIND out with lye soap!

 

[Basileus]

Ummm...I think I needed that...:o


...almost better than confession...

 

[katherine2001]

People used to be baptized naked--that's why they had women deacons in the early church. She did the dipping and the annointing (except for the forehead--the bishop or priest would do that part of it).

 

[Father Rick]

I know that in some Jewish 'mikvehs', the forerunner of baptism, the person to be mikveh'd wears only a large poncho type outfit with just a hole for the opening for the head into the water. When the person immerses, the poncho is held so that the person's head can just slip down through the hole so they are completely immersed, naked, and when they stand back up, their head comes back through the hole and they are covered again.

 

[Mary of Bethany]

I have a book "From Darkness to Light" written by a Catholic nun, Anne Field, O.S.B., about how the early Church catechized new converts. The author uses ancient catechetical writings from the early Fathers (including John Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, Cyprian, Didymus, Ambrose & Augustine) and takes us through, as if the reader is a catechumen being taught by the Bishop. This is what the Bishop teaches regarding the "stripping and anointing" that takes place before Baptism:

"Yesterday I explained the initial sealing with holy oil which marks you out as a soldier of Jesus Christ. In the next step of the rite, you strip completely. This is a sign that you are now putting off your old nature with its sinful practices (Col. 3:9). You are also imitating Jesus as He hung naked on the Cross, where He disarmed the principalities and powers of darkness, publicly triumphing over them (Col.2:15).

"In addition to this symbolism, the clothing you take off also represents your mortality, since Adam and Eve were originally naked and ashamed, and only needed clothes after they had become mortal through disobedience. You present yourself for baptism in order to be born again to immortal life, and so you remove your clothes. When you have done this, you will be anointed with oil from head to foot, as athletes of Christ preparing to enter the spiritual arena, or as soldiers receiving spiritual armor against the enemy's weapons. (snip)
"So then, the deacon or deaconess takes you by the hand and leads you down into the water . . . (description of the sacrament of baptism)."

 

[Grand_Duchess-Elizaveta]

Wow......the idea of having to be baptised naked TOTALLY freaks me out! I'm just glad the Church doesn't do that anymore for adults (at least my parish doesn't)! If they did, I know I could never do it. I remember in high school when I was shopping for a prom dress, the sales lady wanted to come into the dressing room with me to "help." NO WAY was I letting her in there! And that didn't even involve total nudity!

 

[Basileus]

GDE:

Most of the shameful feelings about the body Our Lord gave us here in America come from the Puritans and their teachings that our society have inherited.

Remember, our society is based on religious fanatics (Puritans, Quakers, Bapists, Friends, etc ) and radicals that had teachings that were based on teachings even outside those of even mainline Protestant groups (Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, etc).

Remember The Scarlet Letter? what a good book. A perfect commentary on colonial America and it's thought process which we have unwittingly inherited.

Also, the original Olympics were conducted in the nude!!!

 

[prodromos]

Ethiopian Orthodox still baptise naked I believe. I recall an Ethiopian friend telling how he was in a holy spring in Ethiopia, naked, and a small group of nuns came to the spring, also stripped off to enter the spring and one of the nuns went up to him to ask if he could fill a bottle with water from the spring for them as apparently only men were permitted to do so.

 

[Matthias]

I like the idea of being baptised naked, but don't think I'd be brave enough...