While Moravians believe that baptism is the act of God, we do not believe that it is a magical act that makes our human response to God's initiative unnecessary. Christian baptism carries a responsibility. Parents of baptized children are called upon to raise their children in the fellowship of the church, and in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Their tools will include prayer, instruction and example. In the rite of confirmation, persons baptized as children are called upon to confirm their faith and to affirm the covenant with God in which their baptism as infants or children placed them.
Every baptism is for the entire congregation.
Ideally, every service of baptism will include an opportunity for each person who is present to affirm his or her own baptism and all that it means. Likewise, parents of baptized children will want to use every service in which a child is baptized as an opportunity to remind their own children that they, too, have been given to God in baptism. The actual ritual is over in a matter of moments, but the blessings and responsibilities of the act last a lifetime.