We observe two sacraments baptism and communion.

In our understanding it is not the elements (water, bread and wine – actually grape juice) that are sacred but participation in the sacraments.

While sometimes we do baptize adults upon a confession of faith in Christ, most often we observe infant baptism.  At least one of the parents must be a member of the United Church of Canada and requests for baptism must be approved by Session (the Elders) before a child can be baptized.

In Communion we observe an open table.  All in attendance are invited to participate.

What follows lends itself well to our understanding of these two symbols of God’s action in our midst.

 

From A Song of Faith

 

In grateful response to God’s abundant love,

we bear in mind our integral connection

to the earth and one another;

we participate in God’s work of healing and mending creation.

To point to the presence of the holy in the world,

the church receives, consecrates, and shares

visible signs of the grace of God.

In company with the churches

of the Reformed and Methodist traditions,

we celebrate two sacraments as gifts of Christ:

baptism and holy communion.

In these sacraments the ordinary things of life

—water, bread, wine—

point beyond themselves to God and God’s love,

teaching us to be alert to the sacred in the midst of life.

 

Before conscious thought or action on our part,

we are born into the brokenness of this world.

Before conscious thought or action on our part,

we are surrounded by God’s redeeming love.

Baptism by water in the name of the Holy Trinity

is the means by which we are received, at any age,

into the covenanted community of the church.

It is the ritual that signifies our rebirth in faith

and cleansing by the power of God.

Baptism signifies the nurturing, sustaining,

and transforming power of God’s love

and our grateful response to that grace.

 

Carrying a vision of creation healed and restored,

we welcome all in the name of Christ.

Invited to the table where none shall go hungry,

we gather as Christ’s guests and friends.

In holy communion

we are commissioned to feed as we have been fed,

forgive as we have been forgiven,

love as we have been loved.

The open table speaks of the shining promise

of barriers broken and creation healed.

In the communion meal, wine poured out and bread broken,

we remember Jesus.

We remember not only the promise but also the price that he paid

for who he was,

for what he did and said,

and for the world’s brokenness.

We taste the mystery of God’s great love for us,

and are renewed in faith and hope.

 

We place our hope in God.

We sing of a life beyond life

and a future good beyond imagining:

a new heaven and a new earth,

the end of sorrow, pain, and tears,

Christ’s return and life with God,

the making new of all things.

We yearn for the coming of that future,

even while participating in eternal life now.

 

Divine creation does not cease

until all things have found wholeness, union, and integration

with the common ground of all being.

As children of the Timeless One,

our time-bound lives will find completion

in the all-embracing Creator.

In the meantime, we embrace the present,

embodying hope, loving our enemies,

caring for the earth,

choosing life.

 

Grateful for God’s loving action,

we cannot keep from singing.

Creating and seeking relationship, in awe and trust,

we witness to Holy Mystery who is Wholly Love.        Amen.