Excerpt #2 from John Sloan’s Memoir- My Out of Pulpit Experiences
At some point during most church services on Sunday mornings, collection plates are passed around. Sometimes, people pass along notes to the clergy along with the donation. The topics in these messages are generally complaints: the minister is too long- winded; the organist plays too quickly; etc.
On the Sunday I’m remembering, there was a note on the plate from an inmate at the local jail. The inmate wanted a minister to come and baptize him. I received the assignment.
For three weeks in a row, I went to the jail and met with him in a small, locked room. I decided he was qualified. Then he dropped a bombshell. He wanted his wife and infant daughter to be there so they could all be baptized together.
The warden exploded! He was having none of that. He wouldn’t allow outsiders in his jail at the mercy of the man charged with murder.
I thought back over the times I had spent in that small locked room with the man. No problem. The decision was to go ahead with the service with a male member of the Sacraments Committee.
On a Sunday afternoon, the three of us went to a chapel area. The words and the vows were exchanged, the blessing was offered to conclude the service. And there, in custody, were three grown men; their hands held together with tears streaming down their cheeks.
It was truly a sacrament of baptism that began with a note on the collection plate.
Let the record show that the murder charge was dismissed. He and another biker got into a scuffle and he was found “not guilty”. Subsequently I’ve heard him on the radio pleading for the wrongly accused.
Thanks for the note on the collection plate.
By Rev. John Sloan
