In case of mortal danger, the Orthodox Church allows a
simple layman (who is supposed to be an Orthodox Christian) to perform the Sacrament
of Baptism if there is no priest around.
“If it is impossible to find a priest in a place, then
unbaptized infants can be baptized by anyone who is here. There is no sin: it
does not matter whether the father will baptize them or anyone else, but one must
only be a Christian” (Rule 45 of St. Nicephorus the Confessor).
However, several important conditions must be
fulfilled when a layman performs the sacrament.
One must correctly pronounce the baptismal prayer
above the person taking baptism (The servant of God (Name) is baptized in the
Name of the Father. Amen. And of the Son, Amen. And of the Holy Spirit, Amen).
The prayer must be accompanied by three times immersion into water (or by
sprinkling if immersion is impossible). In this case the Baptism is recognized as
valid.
A layman performing the sacrament must believe
according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church and confess the Orthodox Creed.
The Baptism must not be performed for any foreign or
frankly superstitious causes (so that a person sleeps well, stay healthy and so
on).
At the same time, the service Church Statute
prescribes that a priest should later compensate for the all those prayers, as
well as the Sacrament of Chrismation, which were missed at the moment of the
baptism that occurred “because of the fear of death”.
Source: http://pravlife.org/content/kak-v-sluchae-smertelnoy-opasnosti-okrestit-cheloveka-bez-svyashchennika
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