IN Rev Brian Hankins's letter (GUARDIAN, July 31) in support of his Church's tradition of believers' baptism, the writer uses biblical authority as his justification and calls for "the simple teaching of the New Testament" to be followed which would "save a lot of confusion and apparent inconsistency."

I would suggest that the teaching of the Bible is far from 'simple' and is open to individual as well as Church interpretation. Therefore, rather than become dogmatic about such things we should welcome the possibility and, indeed, celebrate the fact that the variety of opinion is reflected in the many different services available to parents, whether we call them Christenings, Baptism or Naming.

Surely it is important that whatever service the parents choose is authentic to their beliefs and not something which may well be fundamentally lacking in honesty.

Rev Hankins is, of course, quite within his rights to hold his opinion. However, no matter how much he hopes he is not being "excessively dogmatic" the moment he espouses that his interpretation of baptism is the only correct one, which was implicit within his letter, he is being just that.

What is important is that parents feel blessed by the safe arrival of their child and that they feel so moved as to want to celebrate this fact and give thanks to what they hold as sacred, to seek blessings and express hopes for their child's future.

As members of faith communities, we should help them to express this and, indeed, join with them. Rather than become embroiled in our differences, why not celebrate them as part of the family of faiths - as part of the human understanding of the indwelling God?

REV CHRIS GOACHER

Cairo Street Chapel

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.