e, the servants of Christ at St Enoch and St Elijah Monastery in Aotearoa New Zealand, offer this understanding in clarity and truth regarding the baptisms we undertake.
We are baptised members of the Coptic Orthodox Church by sacramental grace, and we live a monastic life of prayer, ascetic discipline, and spiritual formation. Our life and teaching centre on the path of theosis—union with God through Christ by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We live in the tradition of apostolic, desert Christianity—formed in the Spirit before schism, devoted to theosis, and manifest in the hospitality, prayer, evangelism and obedience of monastic life.
We are not ordained in any apostolic church, nor do we claim jurisdictional authority to administer sacraments in the name of a patriarchate or diocese. Yet, as lay monastics bearing witness to Christ, we have received a divine calling to prepare and baptise individuals whom the Lord Himself draws. Each soul comes not by our initiative, but by His. In obedience to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18–20) and the apostolic example (Acts 8:36–38), we respond with prayerful reverence and solemn discernment.
The baptisms we perform are:
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In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;
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By full immersion in water, as per the ancient tradition;
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With a full confession of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed;
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Accompanied by catechesis, repentance, and prayer for the seal of the Holy Spirit.
We affirm that we baptise not into any denomination, but into the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, into His mystical Body—the one, holy, universal, and apostolic Church. We do so believing that the Holy Spirit makes the baptism effective (John 3:5–8).
In prayerful discernment, we understand our charism to teach theosis places us by grace in a unique position to be ‘fishers of men’ among all God’s children who are lost and seeking. We shepherd and encourage those who our Lord brings to us, and who ask for baptism with us, to live faithfully as disciples of Jesus Christ, and to partake in the sacramental life of an apostolic church, whether Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican or liturgical protestant. Quite often SEASEM acts as the net for Christ the bridge back into their early childhood church that they may have fallen away from. On numerous occasions, SEASEM has guided souls into the Orthodox Church where they have received the Church’s sacraments.
We welcome conversation with any clergy who seek to understand our practices and are committed to mutual love and respect across ecclesial boundaries.
With humility and devotion,
In Christ,
Prior Rob and Sister Irini