Baptizuccino

I had the television on but the sound off. Caught the sight of an infant’s baptism within (of all things) a nicotine lozenge commercial. Perhaps the baby chain-smokes.

The officiant was using a little silver pitcher for the sacrament. But I swear it looked like a creamer, or perhaps something you’d use to foam milk for a cappuccino. I certainly don’t mind repurposing “secular” goods for liturgical use: I think I first started thinking about it years ago, after reading how a Russian Orthodox priest in Alaska used a tea kettle to pour the holy water in the blessing of the fishing fleet because no “sacred” vessel was available.

My beef was with the size of the implement. Undersized tools give the impression that there’s something delicate and twee in our worship. This isn’t play in the creative sense, but play suggesting an immature fixation on the “stuff” of church.

My tip: Use appropriately sized implements and use them without self-consciousness.

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Categorized as Worship

By Scott Wells

Scott Wells, 46, is a Universalist Christian minister doing Universalist theology and church administration hacks in Washington, D.C.

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