RIVER baptisms are set to become a regular part of Moorland Church, an all-weather, Celtic-style outdoor church held monthly in the Camelside benefice of five parishes and seven churches on Bodmin Moor, in Cornwall.
The weather becomes part of the worship itself, says the Rector, the Revd Robin Thwaites, who started Moorland Church two years ago at three locations in this rural area. One is Delphy Bridge, where many people in the community learned to swim, and where the first of the baptisms took place on 21 July.
Canon law requires that baptisms be done “within the church” on a Sunday, with the highest congregation numbers; so Mr Thwaites sought permission from the Bishop and Archdeacon to baptise in the Moorland Church context. “Both were very happy, which was wonderful,” he said last week.
“So I put some feelers out and instantly had people coming back to me and saying they would love to do that. I had five baptised this time, and I believe I have double figures for next time.” Three were children, including Mr Thwaites’s own daughter. “I gave them the option of full submersion or a sprinkling of the water, and they all wanted to be dunked,” he said. “It was a really joyful occasion.”
Expressions of faith in the seven churches of the benefice range from high-liturgical to low-liturgical “and everything in between. It’s the joy of being a rector in a multi-parish benefice,” he said. “There’s beauty and value in all of them. People find the church that fits with them, and, however small the congregation, there’s something for everyone. Moorland Church doesn’t replace any of them — it just spreads it even wider for people haven’t found a fit yet.”
Mr Thwaites was brought up in West Sussex, “always with the sea in front of me and the South Downs behind me”. He served his curacy in the benefice, and was so at home in rural ministry that, when his training incumbent retired, he applied for the job. “There’s such a strong sense of community here,” he said.
“Understanding the value of creation is a big part of the people, and Moorland Church is just a really nice expression of that. We spend a lot of time in silence, just feeling the wind on our faces, and that becomes part of the worship itself, being thankful for what is around us. It’s a lovely thing.”