Lockwood Baptist and Elam Ministries celebrate four baptisms
Minister Brian Davison shares news of baptisms at the Huddersfield church
In June 2016 six Iranian Christians arrived in Lockwood in two houses just around the corner, and became regular worshippers with us. Two had been baptised elsewhere, and four asked in September 2016 to be prepared for baptism. They were prepared for Baptism by the Revd Brian Walters and John Lewis, assisted by Peter Bell of Elam ministries and an interpreter, while the Revd Brian Davison focused on supporting them in their asylum applications.
Since then there have been a number of comings and goings but in January those four, along with another who joined us later on, were all accepted for baptism and membership. Sadly one of the four, Abbas, was detained for removal to Germany, to pursue his asylum claim there, before he could be baptised with us.
However the remaining four were baptised on 5 February in a joint service with Elam ministries.
The service was jointly led by Brian Sadegh Dabiri from Elam. We worshipped in our own languages using songs that were written in English, with equivalent Farsi words written to fit the tune (not just word for word translation). We prayed the Lord’s prayer in our own languages, Bible passages were displayed in both languages, and Brian and Sadegh preached together and carried out the baptism together. They were welcomed into membership, and we celebrated communion together, with members of LBC and Elam serving.
As part of the celebration of the new life expressed in 2 Cor 5:17, the candidates expressed a wish to relinquish their old Islamic names and choose new Christian names, (For now this is informal, but once their residence is established they can follow it up by deed poll). Ahmad became “Adam”, Jasem, “John”, Ebrahim, “Ebi” and Ali chose “Jason”. Not all are biblical, but all are new and have no direct connection with Islam.
Abbas is now pursuing his asylum claim in Germany, (under the Dublin convention) and our prayers are with him.
Baptist Times, 22/02/2017