Another Reason to Love the Grey Psalter Hymnal

It seems silly to be sad about it, but today was my nephew's baptism. I had wanted to be home with my family for it, but it didn't work out for various reasons. I thought about the baptism briefly when I woke up, but I wasn't going to dwell on it.

Browsing through the bulletin at church, I realized that there was a baptism scheduled this morning. It was the child of a German couple who are studying here, who had no family with them to witness the baptism. And as we read the form for baptism out of the grey psalter, I realized that although my family is far away, as is the family of the child baptised here, we were reading exactly the same form for baptism and making the same promises here and there.

I think that's what I love about tradition and churches with history--you are always liturgically connected. It made me feel a little better about missing my nephew's baptism.