"Cardinal" O’Malley, female Methodist "pastor" team up on "ritual"

Lane Lambert patriotledger.com PLYMOUTH — The Rev. Anne Robertson has baptized more infants and youngsters than she can count in her past years as a United Methodist minister in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Florida. But the Plymouth resident and Massachusetts Bible Society director never imagined that she’d get the chance to share a ritual drop of water for a baptism remembrance with a Roman Catholic cardinal. Until Sunday, when Cardinal Sean O’Malley asked her. “It was completely unexpected,” the Rev. Robertson said Tuesday, in her first media interview about the encounter. “I’m still blown away by it.” “What moved me was not so much that I was anointing him,” she said. “It was him being willing to accept that from my hand – to ask me, as a woman in ministry, to do that.” A Rhode Island native, the Rev. Robertson was the only female clergy member who assisted at a special 50th anniversary worship service at Sudbury United Methodist Church. Cardinal O’Malley delivered the homily at the ecumenical gathering, which commemorated a groundbreaking appearance by Cardinal Richard Cushing at the church in 1964. At a time when Catholics and Protestants were still deeply wary of each other, Cardinal Cushing was the first cardinal to speak at a Protestant church. As part of Sunday’s anniversary service, the 500 who filled Sudbury United Methodist to overflowing were invited to receive a drop of consecrated water on their forehead and be told, “Remember your baptism and be thankful.” The ritual resembles the ceremonial receiving of ashes on Ash Wednesday, but isn’t a formal United Methodist sacrament. Cardinal O’Malley and New England United Methodist Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar led the ritual in the sanctuary. The Rev. Robertson and a Catholic priest were on their way with small bowls of water to a side room, for others watching the service on a large-screen TV. She paused with the priest at the cardinal’s pew, so they could receive the baptism water from Cardinal O’Malley. The next moment, the cardinal quietly asked the Rev. Robertson to administer the water for him. “My heart immediately went to my throat,” she said. “To be asked that by the man who might be pope someday – I was stunned. I was choking back tears for hours.” to read more: patriotledger.com