Sunday, August 7, 2011

River baptisms

This story that I saw on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette site this morning got me to thinking about something I saw fairly often while growing up: river baptisms.

Every now and then, a church out back (that's what we called the area a ridge or two away from Ohio Route 7) would gather near our home along the Ohio River and baptize one or more people in the river. We had a  neighbor with a German shepherd named Heidi, and she would enjoy getting into the water with the congregation.

Later, in the early 1980s, I came across this scene early one Sunday afternoon while I was driving to work at the Huntington newspaper.



A year or two ago, I posted this photo on Facebook and a former coworker who the last I heard worked for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes said he was baptized at this same spot at old Lock and Dam 27.

Are many baptisms still done in the Ohio River still today? I don't know. But I would like to.

1 comment:

kelsie said...

at least 2 of our neighbors got baptized by the Baptist church out our way this summer--in the Guyandotte.......I thought river baptisms were a thing of the past except for really rural areas, which must as i love living out here, we're not as rural as I would like,