The first of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s Seven Sacraments is holy baptism. The door of baptism is the means by which a believer joins “The Church,” or the Body of Christ, and takes part in the other sacraments, which are the mysteries of grace. A baby, child, adolescent, or adult undergoes the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, which is the Mystery of Holy Baptism, by being submerged in water three times in the names of the Holy Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit anointed Our Lord Jesus Christ when He was baptized by St. John the Baptist in the Jordan River, establishing the Sacrament of Baptism. when His resurrection, He gave His disciples this assurance. According to what the Lord Jesus declared, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of Water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God,” holy baptism is a redemptive sacrament—a mystery—that is required for salvation and admission to eternal life. One of the four redeeming sacraments of the Lord is holy baptism. The other three are Chrismation, or Confirmation (Myron), Confession, or Penance, and Holy Communion, or Qurban, which is the sharing of the Lord’s precious blood and body. The believer is reborn—a spiritual birth—through holy baptism from the Water and the Spirit; his first birth was from his parents. A person only gets the Sacrament of Holy Baptism once, according to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.
