DIY baptism
Sir: Readers of Michael Trend's article ('Trickling Away', 4 February) can take comfort from the fact that the Christian Church has consistently maintained that baptism, unlike confirmation, may validly be administered by any Christian lay man or woman. It is true that the African church used to require those who had been baptised by heretics to be rebaptised, but this requirement was condemned by the Council of Arles (314).
A form of service appropriate to private baptism is to be found in the Prayer Book. Those worried by the reference in the rubric to 'any other lawful minister that can be procured', in the absence of the minister of the parish, should turn for enlighten- ment to the corresponding instruction in the Prayer Book of 1549, which read: 'First let them that be present call upon God for his grace. . . . And then one of them shall name the Child, and dip him in the water . . . saying these words.'
David J. Critchley
38 Longlands Court, Winslow. Buckingham
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