by Betsy Pasley
It was going to be an unusual service. Since I was the liturgist that Mother’s Day, I had studied the bulletin in advance, so I knew that we were admitting two couples into our membership and providing the sacrament of baptism to a child from each couple. This could be interesting (and maybe chaotic!) I thought.
When I walked in early, I saw many unfamiliar faces, which I quickly realized were the families of the two couples. I welcomed them and assisted the ushers in seating them into reserved pews toward the front.
During worship, from my view looking back at the congregation, I noted that the families on both sides of the aisle were active in the elements of the service, joined in the hymns, and some of them even knew the Apostle’s Creed by heart. I realized – with gratitude – that both couples must have been brought up in the church. I was also touched by the number of family and friends who went out of their way (some more than 300 miles) to support these couples on this special day.
At the requisite time, both couples came to the front. The couple on the right corralled their active three-year-old twins, as the mother held the squirming one-year-old boy who was awaiting baptism. The couple on the left stood more quietly with a young daughter, while that mother also held her six-month-old baby in preparation for the sacrament. Behind them stood a couple standing in as the godparents.
I had since moved to the pews, next to some of the relatives. During the baptism, a 90-something woman to my right proudly told me that the small baby on the left was her great-granddaughter.
With some difficulty, but great aplomb, our female pastor juggled first the year-old boy and then the smaller baby girl for the ceremony. Then the congregation answered the call to help nurture these two children in our church.
So why is this any different from any other service featuring new members or baptism? As you might expect, the couple on the right was comprised of a father and mother. However, the parents on the left were both female. Both sets of parents were making that critical commitment to raise their child in our community of faith and inclusion.
What a testimony to God’s message of love – on Mother’s Day.
Betsy Pasley is a ruling elder at University Presbyterian Church in San Antonio.
