I go to church rarely, perhaps once or twice a year, but whenever I do go, I pay attention to everything around me. I soak it in. Every bit of symbolism is of interest. And so is every word the priest utters. I follow him like a hawk. Conscious of the danger of understanding things a bit too literally, I accosted many people outside the church after the service this evening: “Is it true that there is no eternal life without christening?” This is what I heard the priest say twice, but no-one was really sure. “If you behave well,” many of them tried to extricate themselves from the difficulty, “everything will be just fine.” But I was still insisting on the connection between the eternal life and christening. “Well,” some of them were saying, “you can get christened any time in your life.” As it turns out, I will have to talk to the priest. But this was the bit in this evening’s service that made me most happy. More, ecstatic. Luckily for me, I never got christened.