Today’s reading introduces Cyprian’s three letters on the baptism of heretics, where his earlier concerns for unity, holiness, and discipline now focus on one urgent question: should baptism performed outside the Church be received as true baptism? Cyprian answers no, arguing that because the Church is one, baptism is one, and those separated from the Church cannot give what they do not possess. These letters matter not only because of Cyprian’s argument, but because the wider Church would later wrestle with and, in the West, largely move in a different direction through figures like Stephen of Rome and Augustine. From a Protestant perspective, we may not follow Cyprian all the way in his sacramental conclusion, but his deeper concern remains important: baptism is not an empty ritual detached from truth, confession, and the body of Christ.

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