This Day Have We Begotten You

On Saturday, April 12, Russell and Elliot were baptized at St. Raphael of Brooklyn Orthodox Church in Iowa City. The relatively small chapel was quite full with Church friends, family members, and out-of-town guests. As with Thomas' baptism, there were actually two services performed. The first were the prayers of adoption. These prayers were said at the altar of the Church, and are the parent-child equivalent of wedding vows. The prayers are completed with Jared and Beth saying aloud, "Today you are our sons; this day we have begotten you."

The Orthodox baptismal service, or, let's be honest, any Orthodox service, is quite elaborate. It starts outside the chapel, where the godparents-to-be do things like renounce the devil and spit on him and recite the creed and commit themselves to Christ. It then processes into the chapel where the babies are prayed over and then stripped to be baptized. After the baptism (see video below), the babies are changed into their white baptismal gowns. They are then tontured, with the hair being burnt as a first offering to God, and chrismated. (Chrismation is actually a seperate sacrament and in the Catholic practice is reserved until the children are older.) The ceremony concludes with a procession around the baptismal font, with all in the Church singing, "As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. Alleluia!"

Father Ignatius did a wonderful job of explaining what was going on during the natural lulls in the service created by the removing and changing of outfits. One of the things which may not have been explained is why Russell and Elliot were baptized as Matthew and Elijah. It is traditional for Orthodox Christians to take on the names of saints. In our family, these names have always borne some relationship to our given names. Jared is called Jared after the ancestor of Christ and father of Enoch, Beth is called Elizabeth after the mother of John the baptist, Thomas is called Thomas after the apostle, Russell (whose second name is Matthew) is called Matthew after the evangelist, and Elliot (an anglocized version of Elijah) is called Elijah after the old testament prophet.

Of course, one of the best things about events like this is the loved ones who travel from out-of-town to be with you. We would like to especially thank Nathan and Jennifer Larsen (Russell's godparents) and their son Owen, and Bobby and Paige Maddex (Elliot's godparents) and their daughters Isabelle (our goddaughter) and Jane for driving hours to sponsor our children. Thomas' godparents, Molly and Troy Sabourin, and three-quarters of their kids-Priscilla, Benjamin (our godson), and Mary-also made the trek. (Elijah, we missed you!) Finally, Carrie Sabourin (your third shout-out here, at least, so don't complain about being last!), Greg and Marian Lambert, and Geoffrey Thompson, our good friends from Christ the Savior Orthodox Church in Chicago, also made the long drive to Iowa City. Thank you also to our parents who endured all the devil spitting, hair burning, baby dunking, head greasing, prayer chanting, and incense smelling to support us on this important day. We love you all.

It's taken at least three nights to get this blog written with all the busy-ness around our house, so we'll wrap it up now. But before we conclude, it must be stated that it was Jared who wrote that he was his "usual grumpy self." It was just a little self-depricating honesty. As he is and ever shall be, grump without end, amen.