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Disregarding
the cool weather and colder water of Elk Fork of Salt River,
three candidates from the Mt. Airy Baptist Church southwest of
Paris were baptised in the river Sunday shortly after noon.
The location was just south of the historic old Union covered
bridge, shown in back. ground above, with the low water
crossing over which water was rolling during the ceremony
shown in the foreground, with a small part of the larger than
usual crowd shown at right.
Rev.
R.W. Spratley. pastor at Mt. Airy, is shown in left center of
photo. as he raised Jamie Barnes from the water after
immersing him.
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In
the lower close-up photo, Rev. Spratley is shown preparing to
immerse Gregg Pierce. The third to be baptised was Wesley
Barnes.
Since
Christ was baptised in the River Jordan almost 2,000 years
ago, the river, a lake or a deep pond were used for baptismal
ceremonies until 60 years ago when baptistries were installed
in several town churches in Monroe County. It was not unusual
for ministers to cut the ice during the colder winter
months in order to baptize converts who were unwilling to wait
until spring and warmer weather. Several pictures of such icy
immersions exist today in Monroe County, among them one that
took place at the old Stoutsville covered bridge around 1910,
when 14 Inches of ice covered the waters of North Fork of Salt
River and temperatures stood at zero or near that. Old timers
recall that in such
instances,
even though both ministers and converts got wet and chilled
and often had to ride a mile or two in buggies or wagons, for
dry, warm clothing, no one ever heard of any of them taking
cold or otherwise suffering from exposure.
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