SITREP #3

A very old Navy tradition is to use the ship’s bell for baptisms. That’s right, baptisms. It makes for a really interesting font!

“For as long as men. and women have sailed the open seas, they have carried with them the rituals of the land. Births happen at sea, deaths happen at sea, and so too do those infinite number of life’s little miracles and occasions in between. For sailors and their families of the Christian faith, this includes the rite of baptism.”
www.bells.org/blog/baptism-ships-bell-open-seas

I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. The chaplain aboard the USS Gridley (of “damn the torpedos” fame) is a Baptist minister. Baptists require a “believer’s baptism”. So the word went out for a “baby baptizer” and I responded to the call.

The couple met on a different ship, fell in love and got married. The mother is continuing her naval service and is among the ship’s company on the Gridley. Both parents are drawn to the sea and so they named their girl Mara Sailish — Mara for “sea” and Sailish is the name for the waters that include the Strait of Georgia, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Puget Sound, and all the channels that connect them. The water behind me is part of the Sailish Sea and the dad brought the salty water onboard ship for the baptism.

It was a great opportunity to welcome in the newest member of the Body of Christ and celebrate her connections to the water.

It was also a paradoxical juxtaposition of grace and destructive power, the Prince of Peace and the tools of war. To the right of the font above are a series of small hatches that make up the fore missile deck; the big gray thing between me and Mara’s dad is the 5” gun. Martin Luther said that we live in two kingdoms: the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. You see them both in stark contrast in these pictures.