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Time after Pentecost · Green Friday, September 4 · Year A
Home/Care/Emergency baptism

If this is urgent, do this now and read the rest after. Pour or sprinkle water on the person’s head and say the words below. Any Christian may do this. No pastor, no church, no special water required.

Emergency baptism

Six lines · any baptized Christian may do this · it is a real baptism

Do this

  1. 1Get water. Tap water is fine. Bottled water is fine. Saline from a hospital sink is fine. It does not need to be blessed.
  2. 2Pour or sprinkle it on the head three times, or once. Either is valid. A few drops is enough.
  3. 3Say the words below aloud while the water touches them.

Say this

[Name], I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

If you do not know the name, say “child of God” instead. It counts.

Then, if there is time

None of this is required. The baptism is already complete.

Almighty God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we give you thanks for freeing this your child from the power of sin and death, and for raising them to new life.Amen.

Make the sign of the cross on their forehead.

[Name], child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.

Then the Lord’s Prayer, if you can manage it.

The questions people ask afterward

Does it really count?
Yes. Fully and permanently. Lutherans hold that baptism is God’s work, not the minister’s. The water and the words make the baptism, not the credentials of the person pouring. It should never be repeated, and no church should ask you to repeat it.
I am not sure I did it right.
If water touched the person and you said those words in that name, it was right. If you are genuinely unsure whether water and words happened together, a pastor can later baptize conditionally (“if you are not already baptized, I baptize you”), which resolves the doubt without denying what already happened.
I am not sure I believe any of this myself.
It still counts. The validity does not rest on your faith. It rests on the promise, and the promise is not conditional on the state of the person holding the cup.
Who should I tell?
Any Lutheran congregation, when you are able. They will record it, and if the person lives, the congregation will welcome them publicly later, not to baptize again, but to affirm what already happened. Write down the date, the place, and who was present while you still remember.
The baby died.
Your child is held by God, and that was true before you reached for the water. Baptism is a gift and a promise, not a transaction that God required you to complete in time. Lutherans do not teach that an unbaptized infant is lost. Please do not carry that. Prayers for the death of a child.
Can I baptize myself?
No. Baptism is something done to you, by the church, on Christ’s command. If you want to be baptized and cannot get to a congregation, here is how to find one who can come to you. We can point you there; we cannot do the baptizing ourselves.
From the library

Luther wrote a short letter in 1542 to console women after miscarriage and stillbirth, arguing against exactly the fear above. It is fifteen minutes long. →
What the Small Catechism says about baptism Asking for communion at home