I do not know if everyone else who celebrated this rite did so with the same form in the ceremony, but there was a thought I wanted to share about my experience and the epistle reading we used. Even though I know by virtue of baptism I am already a Christian well, I just sort of realized anew the joy of finding myself welcomed by the visible apostolic church.
As they read this scripture it was like it was finally being read to me (all of us there). Meaning, it was not me reading about the early church or general truths about being a Christian. It was the church welcoming me and looking out and praying for me. The text had a voice that was loving and personal as if Paul wrote it to us and was still speaking through the presence of the bishops and community and all. I always loved that passage but it was finally i its truest sense being fulfilled.
I am not sure I am making sense in describing it. But it was wonderful. I am no longer simply a (separated brethren) Christian, but I am being recongnized and prayed for by the visible church militant, God's family on earth, and now my official family.
Colossians 1:3-6, 9-14
9For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. 10And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully 12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
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