214 baptisms and one very cold river

For ten years Baptism Sunday meant a rented tank on the Depot stage. This August we tried something else: the river, at the Point, where the Allegheny and the Monongahela turn into the Ohio.

We expected sixty people. Two hundred and fourteen walked into the water, from a nine year old who had been asking for two years to a retired steelworker who said he had put it off since the Carter administration.

Why the river

Our name comes from that spot. Three rivers, one current. It felt right to watch people from North Shore, Lawrenceville, South Hills and Online go into the same water on the same morning.

I have lived here all my life and never once touched that river. Now I will never look at it the same way.

A baptism guest

What we learned

• River water in August is warmer than you think. River water in September is not.

• Towels matter more than microphones.

• The best part was the shoreline: hundreds of people cheering for strangers.

We are planning the next river baptism for June. If you want to be baptized before then, join us for Baptism Sunday on January 10 at any location.