The Sacraments of the Lutheran Church

       Baptism

Baptism is one of the two Sacraments in the Lutheran Church. It is the action or work of God by which he promises to create faith in the baptized. Baptism is more than a ritual. It is the means by which God creates a relationship with his people. It is the sign, seal and symbol of the salvation God freely provides for us through Jesus the Christ.

Because Baptism is God's work, not our own, we practice the Baptism of infants and small children. While unbaptized adults normally attend a period of instruction before being Baptized, it is still our understanding that they are the passive recipients of God's grace in the waters of Baptism.

Baptisms are done in our public services of worship, not privately, because of the pledges of prayer and support that the congregation makes on behalf of those baptized. The congregation is an essential tool by which God keeps his promise to create faith. The normal "mode" of Baptism in our congregation is "pouring" using water from the Baptismal font.

       Holy Communion

We celebrate the Sacrament of Holy Communion regularly at both services every Sunday of the month and at other special times during the year such as Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday and Christmas Eve.

To accommodate the variety of traditions from which our members have come, we celebrate Holy Communion using individual cups of wine and a specially baked communion bread or communion wafers. At special festival services we celebrate communion by "intinction" using a common cup into which communion wafers are dipped.

The Communion Table at Fellowship is "open" meaning that all baptized Christians who have been receiving the sacrament in their own congregations and who believe that Christ is truly present in the sacrament to forgive their Sin are encouraged to receive His Body and Blood "in, with and under" the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper.