Hiroshima Day and Baptism

My son Kirk and I were both baptized on August 6, neither of us in a church building.  I, born in Des Moines in 1938 on Nov. 6, was baptized nine months later in 1939 in the home of our aunt and uncle in Garner, Iowa. Kirk was baptized in the parsonage back yard next door to our Detroit congregation two weeks after his birth, on August 6, 1969. Thirty years apart. 

Hiroshima day each year helps us remember the U.S. nuclear bombing of Japan Aug. 6, 1945, and to pledge ourselves to work for peace. In the baptismal service we welcome people into the body of Christ to bear God's creating and redeeming word to all the world. We are all called to do that, especially outside the doors of our church buildings.