Last Sunday, as we basked in the sun on Alwoodley Village Green more than 250 miles away, in Dorset, over 1,000 people came together to celebrate a mass baptism service.
The venue was Bournemouth beach and the event which was hosted by BCP Church Collective – a group of 14 churches from Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole – saw 43 people baptised not in a conventional baptistry like ours but in the sea.
Last Sunday, however, was only the first of two special services; the second is this Sunday (the 28th of June) when organisers confidently expect last year’s total of 92 baptisms watched by well over 1,300 people will be exceeded.
Summing up the event, one the organisers, Tim Matthews who is the senior leader at Lovechurch in Gervis Road, Bournemouth said: “In a time of such uncertainty, with so much bad news around, the beach baptisms are a sign of great hope for everyone.”
Many thanks to Jean Carlise who spotted this post on social media and passed it through to me, and also to BCP Church Collective for allowing us to use their pictures.