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Article: Baptism and the process of Christian initiation.
- Article from:
- The Ecumenical Review
- Article date:
- January 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 World Council of Churches. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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1. Common baptism or common initiation?
The affirmation that all Christian people share a "common baptism" has become an accepted departure point in ecumenical conversations and documents. A recent Faith and Order paper on baptism (emerging from the consultation held at Faverges, France, in 1997) declares, for example, that:
Through our common baptism we are all brought into Christ, and this forms
the basis of our ecumenical engagement with each other: because Christ has
claimed us, we have no right to reject one another ... Since we as
Christians are all incorporated into the crucified and glorified Christ,
nothing--not even the churches ...