TWENTY-SEVEN Christians will be baptised by total immersion in a large tank of water outside York Minster on Saturday.

Open-air baptisms by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, have now become an Easter tradition at the cathedral.

Christians from different denominations at local churches will be involved in this Saturday’s ceremony, which takes place near the West End from 2.30pm. Among those being baptised is Lovely-Anna Louise Belfon-Kaaba, 23, who attends York Elim Pentecostal Church and is a student at the University of York. She said: “To be baptised at this special time of the year, when Jesus died on Good Friday and rose again on Easter Sunday, I feel I am so lucky and I feel proud to be publicly declaring my love, trust and faith for Jesus. “Baptism is a promise made between myself and God, it’s a promise that I’ll keep his commandments.”

The baptism service is being organised by One Voice York, a network of Christian churches and leaders of different denominations working together across the city. The Archbishop of York and the candidates’ own church leader will be in the water to baptise all candidates. The joint Chair of One Voice York, the Rev Graham Hutchinson, will ask each person and all those watching to affirm their faith before the baptisms. When the candidates come out of the water they will be prayed for by all the church leaders.

Mr Hutchinson said: “Baptism is a symbol of death and new life, and it’s especially important at Easter, when we celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As these people are immersed in the water they will symbolically die to their old life, and as they rise up into the air they will symbolically come alive into the life of Jesus Christ.” “The people being baptised come from different church traditions, each with a different way of doing things. But by coming together to celebrate these baptisms, we are saying that in our essentials we believe the same things, and are all part of a wider church family in Jesus Christ.”