Guidelines and Worship Resources for the Celebration of Full Communion: Daily Office, Holy Baptism and Confirmation or Affirmation of Baptism

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Daily Office
The Daily Office of morning and evening prayer also is an important place to bring full communion to expression. Each church has rich resources for these prayer offices which should be explored together.

Holy Baptism
Congregations of our churches will continue to recognize the validity of baptism administered in the other church participating in this relationship of full communion.

Celebrating together the baptism of infants, children, or adults, with laity and ordained ministers from both church bodies participating, is encouraged as a sign of our unity in Christ. While each baptism is administered by one ordained minister, the presence of ordained ministers and laity from the other church, and their participation in the other parts of the liturgy, testifies to the ecumenical character of all baptisms and to our mutual recognition of members in full communion.

When baptisms take place in the context of the worship of a congregation of one of our churches, inviting representatives from the other church to be present as guests, as witnesses, or as sponsors also can serve this sign of our common baptism into Christ. Each baptism is entered into the records of the church accepting responsibility for the on-going care and nurture of the newly baptized and whose ordained minister administered the sacrament.

Confirmation or Affirmation of Baptism
A rite of confirmation is common to both our churches. Congregations of our churches will recognize the validity of each other's rites even though a bishop presides at Confirmation in The Episcopal Church, while a pastor presides at the affirmation of baptism in congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.