How were you baptized?

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I was baptized at age 11 after making a profession of faith at our church altar. The church I attended was independent and non-denominational but very Baptist-like. We were baptized in a town a few miles away where the river formed a quiet backwater. I can still remember the water roaring in my ears as I was plunged under and brought up again. It was a hot, muggy day. 🙂
 
RebeccaJ said:
I was baptized at age 8 in an LDS Stake Center, which had a build in baptismal font (looks like a small swimming pool) with other children of the same age. We were all fully emerged, and if even a finger or piece of clothing was not immersed, the baptism had to be done over again. I remember one girl was baptized several times to get it right. She kept poking her foot out of the water! It was not during a regular church service, and Mormons don’t have godparents.

Since LDS baptisms are not valid for people being received into the Catholic Church, I was baptized in 2008 in a Catholic Cathedral, during Easter Vigil, standing in a baptismal font that was about 8-10" deep and the water poured over my head three times from a smaller font above. (The smaller font is used for infant baptisms.) There were about 9 other adults baptized that same night, and I had a sponsor/godparent.
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My favorite event of the year. Brings tears every single time. 👍
 
dianaiad said:
“Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints”

LDS is shorter, but there are a few offshoots that claim to be LDS as well as 'Mormon."

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints" is the big one…the one that most people think of, the one based in Salt Lake and that has all the temples. 😉
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Please don’t take this as an offense, but the Catholic Church does not recognize LDS baptism as valid. 🤷
 
EvangelCatholic said:
I was reading a discussion on another thread about “sprinkling” versus full immersion baptisms. Out of curiosity I am interested in how and at what age people were baptized. Was it in a large pool by immersion? In a lake or ocean? Was your baptism public during the regular church service? Did you have Godparents/ sponsors? Were you baptized with others?

I was baptized at 2 weeks of age in a Lutheran parish. My uncle and aunt [since deceased] were my Godparents. As is the custom among Lutherans, the pastor used a simple seashell to pour the water over my forehead 3 times while naming the Holy Trinity. My sons were baptized in the same manner except they were also given a baptism candle and were anointed with holy oil. Baptism is considered a major sacrament for Lutherans.

Any Christians out there who have not been baptized?
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A month and a day after I was born, by the same method. My dad was the pastor who baptized me.

Jon
 
Bradthecatholic said:
Please don’t take this as an offense, but the Catholic Church does not recognize LDS baptism as valid. 🤷
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She is aware, I assure you. But this thread asked about people’s experiences in being Baptized. The validity of Mormon baptisms is a subject for another thread.
 
The sect I was raised in mandates adult baptism, ‘adult’ applying to anyone who achieved the age of reason. Because baptism was part of the Pentecostal salvation formula (repent, baptize, receive holy ghost/speak in tongues), we were CONSTANTLY nagged/cajoled about the importance of it. I was baptized using the “in Jesus’ name”, full immersion, at the age of 12 or so, back in 1997. I think I wanted to be sincere, but I was mostly doing it out of duty.

I was then baptized on October 9, 2011, into the Episcopal church. I don’t know if it’s a valid baptism on Catholic terms given that the officiant was my associate rector, a woman, but for me the ceremony was my coming of age…my declaration that I was ready and willing to take on the duties of sincere Christian life.
 
I was baptized in a lake in Georgia as an adult. (22 years old I think, but I dont have a written record of it) Basically waded out into the water, the (female) pastor used the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and then submerged me into the water.

It was a private affair with only a few onlookers. At the time I wasn’t a member of any particular church, but the pastor who baptized me was a Pentecostal.

Very nice though. We went for a swim afterwards. 🙂

I didn’t find the Catholic Church until years later.
 
When I was a year old, my folks took me to my father’s home in North Dakota, and there I was baptized in the local Lutheran church, along with my cousin (my father’s brother’s daughter), who was almost the same age as I was. Oddly enough, my parents never told me about this; I found out long after I had become an adult.

Then when I was eight or thereabouts, I “got saved” in the Church of God congregation that my mother was taking us to, and shortly thereafter I was baptized by immersion, with the Trinitarian formula, in Christiana Creek (appropriate name!) in my home town.

Later I “backslid” and lived like a heathen for a decade or so, and I experienced the conversion that “stuck” when I was almost 30 in a little church in Japan. Later I was in the Philippines for ear surgery, and I made contact with the little servicemen’s Pentecostal church there (Angeles City), which was sponsored by the same Church of God that I had grown up in. The pastor and I became friends, and he rebaptized me in the church baptistery.

Neither of the CoG baptisms was documented, but when I was in the process of coming into the Catholic Church, I was able to obtain a letter from that little Lutheran church in NoDak documenting the date of my baptism and who my sponsors were (big surprise – my uncle and aunt). That was good enough to keep me from being conditionally baptized.

So basically, in spite of not having been baptized by a Catholic priest, I’ve had the best of both worlds.
 
I was 3 months old. My parents dressed me in a white baby christening gown and it was a small amount of water used (believe a shell was used as well). My Aunt and Uncle were my Godparents, but they no longer practice the faith, so yeah…
 
I was baptized twice. Using the trinitarian form.

Yeah, I know…now.

My dad gave me an emergency baptism when I was less than a month old. He took me into the bathroom and did it secretly because my mom refused to allow me to be baptized in the Catholic Church, like my older brothers were. My dad was Catholic but had fallen away. My mom had no religion by then. They were divorced within a year and I was raised without religion.

Years later, as a college student, I finally starting learning about God in an Episcopal church. They asked if I had been baptized and I said ‘no’ because I didn’t know about my dad’s baptism. When I told my dad the Episcopals wanted to baptize me, he called what he did a ‘conditional baptism’ by mistake. He thought he was just doing something to ‘hold me over’ until I could be baptized in a church. Thus, I was baptized again (does God have facepalm moments?).

The bottom line is that I was baptized Catholic and didn’t know it until I was studying the Catechism in RCIA last year. I gave a copy of my adult baptism to the Church and my dad wrote a letter about the baptism he did when I was a baby. I think the verdict was the first one is the one that counted. I wonder if the second was just sort of annoying to the Holy Spirit? :o
 
Catholic_farmer said:
The bottom line is that I was baptized Catholic and didn’t know it until I was studying the Catechism in RCIA last year. I gave a copy of my adult baptism to the Church and my dad wrote a letter about the baptism he did when I was a baby. I think the verdict was the first one is the one that counted. I wonder if the second was just sort of annoying to the Holy Spirit? :o
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I think He understands. 🙂
 
Got baptized as an infant at my nearby Lutheran Church much like the OP.
 
My moms best friend was Pentecostal Holiness, so I was baptized at her church as a child. It was by immersion, but in the name of Jesus only, so it wouldn’t have been considered a valid Catholic baptism. Later, we joined a Baptist church and I was baptized there, by immersion, in a nearby creek.
 
I was baptized at the age of 13 by my own choice in the Baptist church. Full immersion in a creek, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
 
EvangelCatholic said:
I was reading a discussion on another thread about “sprinkling” versus full immersion baptisms. Out of curiosity I am interested in how and at what age people were baptized. Was it in a large pool by immersion? In a lake or ocean? Was your baptism public during the regular church service? Did you have Godparents/ sponsors? Were you baptized with others?

I was baptized at 2 weeks of age in a Lutheran parish. My uncle and aunt [since deceased] were my Godparents. As is the custom among Lutherans, the pastor used a simple seashell to pour the water over my forehead 3 times while naming the Holy Trinity. My sons were baptized in the same manner except they were also given a baptism candle and were anointed with holy oil. Baptism is considered a major sacrament for Lutherans.

Any Christians out there who have not been baptized?
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I was baptized at 21 years old, by pouring x3, in an episcopal church during a Sunday service. No godparents or sponsors or anything like that.
 
I was baptized at 25, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Full immersion, by an Orthodox priest. I had two sponsors/godparents participating.
 
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