Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori believes that the sacraments of communion and baptism should not be separated. At a townhall meeting in North Carolina a few months ago, she said, “If we’re aware that there are people coming to the table who have not been baptized, it’s time to do something.
“We baptize infants in the expectation that they will grow in community to be faithful members of the Body of Christ and we invite those babes in arms to receive communion… We haven’t everywhere discovered an attitude that can welcome older people in the same way. I would much rather see us have ‘on-call’ baptisms in the expectation that a person will be nurtured by the community in his or her faith…”
Let’s figure out how to deal with this without breaking the center of what we think is important, that members of the Body are fed from the Body of Christ. If someone is being fed, make it clear that this person is a member of the Body of Christ, and if this person is a member of the Body of Christ, then make sure that person is being fed. Don’t separate them.”