Holy Trinity Church, Frome

The Anglican Church has its rules and I suppose I should conform once in a while. I felt a great desire, no, a great need to take communion. To do this I would need to be confirmed in the faith by the Bishop. Also coming from the non-conformist tradition I had not been baptized as a child, so I had to be baptized and confirmed all at once.

This however was an essential step in my Christian journey.

This was an opportunity to publicly declare myself a disciple of the Lord and that I had defected from the other side. It was a chance to say to the devil, “Go swivel”...

On that cold dark draughty evening in November we sat in the front pew in Christchurch Church, Joyce, Alfie, Alan and I. Knees were knocking, Joyce was almost as nervous as me, Alfie was unflustered.

What a joy to stand at the font and declare out love for the Lord in front of strangers, my daughters and my granddaughter. But the greatest privilege was to bear witness in the presence of fellow disciples of Christ. Sue, John and Pat had come along to support the quintet of novices, they who had passed this way many years previously were there to pray, applaud and praise the Lord. Their fellowship was valued and treasured.

The Bishop was a bit of a card and that helped the nerves. He wore a driver’s L plate on a piece of string around his neck to demonstrate that we were truly novices and we would always be thus. We would never stop learning about the grace of God and the mystery of his forgiveness in our walk through this life and beyond. The service was formal and quite high church by Trinity standards, which was nice, a bit of incense and formality added dignity and a sense of occasion to the evening.

At the end of proceedings we formed a semi-circle to receive our lighted baptism candles, this we held with a sense of assurance but also responsibility. We had to follow the Bishop in a procession to the back of the church with our candles burning. Panic set in, what if there was a draught that blew out my candle? These old churches are full of draughts and special blowing out candle draughts! Or what of someone sneezed? I would be the only one at the back of the church with an unlit candle. Snuffed out.

Solution: I would walk closely behind Alfie, walking in his wake I would get to the other end burning candle intact ……………. Job done.

It suddenly occurred to me, that if the light was to burn in my heart as strongly as it did that night when I got to the end of my journey in this life, that’s all I had to do, not walk behind Alfie, but walk behind Jesus. All I have to do is follow Jesus and the flame will not go out ………….. why didn’t I think of that?