The New Sojourn Baptismal + a big thanks to Scott Ramser
July 1, 2009 by Michael Winters
You'll need to do some imagining, but this picture shows the wooden form for our new baptismal that will be used for years to come at the 930/ Germantown campus. The guy with the big smile is Scott Ramser. Scott has worked super hard on both this baptismal and on our new communion table (blog post w/ pics coming soon) so if you see him around, say thanks.
The final bapstismal will be this 8-sided shape and covered inside and out in copper. The design is intended to be subtly reminiscent of a casket because baptism is a symbol of being buried with Christ and raised to new life. It has eight sides because eight is traditionally the number of regeneration, and many historical baptismal fonts have an octagonal base for this reason. Other biblical foreshadowings of baptism also relate to the number eight. It can be assumed that because of Jewish custom, Jesus was circumcised and named when he was eight days old and baptism is understood by some Christians as the New Testament equivalent of circumcision. Also, eight people were saved in Noah's ark, which is another Old Testament parallel of baptism.
The new baptismal should be ready for the next round of baptisms.
