From ELO-
Betty Lou Anderson was overjoyed to hear there'd be two baptisms in her family June 13 at Holy Trinity Church, Gillette, in the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming.
And then another one was planned. And then a few more, until the number swelled to 14.
"They just kept coming forward," Anderson said June 16 of her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and four other relatives who were baptized by the Rev. Tom Fiske.
"It's a miracle," added Anderson, 77, a widow who has attended Holy Trinity since moving to Gillette from South Dakota in 1956.
It's a miracle she helped along.
"Betty Lou Anderson is a very near and dear member of Holy Trinity, and she's been after them to get baptized," Fiske said during a June 16 telephone interview from his office. "In this post-modern society, it's very difficult to get that generation to step up to the plate and say, ‘All right, we need to be baptized.'"
With each additional request, Fiske recalled, "I just said, all right, we can do that. So I ended up with 14 baptisms … That's the most I've ever done, and it wasn't even Easter."
The candidates ranged in age from 33 years to about 15 months, said Fiske, who said the celebration didn't faze him. "Grace does abound, and baptism is the entrance into Christ's family. You might not know all the ifs, ands or buts about the church, but you are welcomed into our family. There you begin a process of learning and discerning about the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life."
As family matriarch, Anderson presented the adults – her grandchildren – to Fiske for baptism. "And then the adults who were baptized brought forth the children," Fiske said. "I reiterated over and over again that, while they may not all go to Holy Trinity, I really do care that they go to church."
More here-
http://www.episcopal-life.org/81803_123014_ENG_HTM.htm
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