"I've come to the conclusion that the Church of England could do with more parties and less meetings," he said, telling the crowd that the Church should celebrate more. After all, Christ's first miracle was at the celebration of a wedding in Cana.

Saturday's baptisms were a part of whirlwind tour in which the Archbishop of Canterbury participated in 17 events in the span of 45 hours travelling from Bristol to Kingswood to Stoke Gifford to Hotwells to Ladyfield in Chippenham, and Lydiard Park in Swindon, finally ending his tour at the Malmesbury Abby.

He preached in Bristol Cathedral and visited schools, toddler groups and people with learning difficulties. He then patrolled the streets of Kingswood with street ministers and ended up in countless "selfies". The Royal Family has also ended up in selfies, as has the Pope. The Archbishop also opened and blessed a new auditorium in Stoke Gifford and a 24-hour prayer room in Hotwells. Then he witnessed a new church initiative at Ladyfield and helped start a charity event at Lydiard Park, all before taking off his shoes and entering chilly waters of the baptismal pool to celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism in the shadow of an ancient abbey.

Malmesbury Abbey originally dates back to 675 and the episcopate of St Theodore of Tarsus, the VIII Archbishop of Canterbury, and the reign of Æscwine the King of Wessex. In the 10th Century, the seven kingdoms of the Heptarchy: East Anglia, Mercia, Northumbria, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Wessex merged to become the Kingdom of England with the Wessex King Alfred the Great of emerging as the first King of the Anglo-Saxons and firmly establishing the English monarchy, which continues down the current reigning monarch Queen Elizabeth II who is now of the House of Windsor.

In April, John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, in a very public Holy Week celebration of baptism, held a similar outdoor baptismal ceremony on the grounds of York Minster Cathedral. This is an event he has been hosting for the past eight years.

POPE FRANCIS

On Sunday, less the 1,000 miles away, Pope Francis was also busy celebrating a few Sacraments himself. In addition to his normal Sunday Mass, the Pope officiated at the marriage of 20 unwed couples, some of whom have been living together.

"The people getting married on Sunday are couples like many others," the Catholic Diocese of Rome explained earlier in the week. "Some already live together, some already have children."

The Pope's action has caused quite a stir in the news media as he again reached out as a caring pastor to others who need to meaningfully connect or reconnect with the Church for their soul's sake. Cohabitating couples and those couples married outside of the Church are barred from the Sacramental life of the Catholic Church until they are properly married in the eyes of the Church.

The last time a pope celebrated multiple marriages was Pope -- now Saint -- John Paul II, who in 2000 united eight Catholic couples in Holy Matrimony to celebrate the Jubilee for Families. The first time John Paul II performed group weddings was in Mexico as a part of the World Day of Families event in 1994.

Cohabiting is on the rise as the culture continues towards secularization, turning further away from God and the spiritual guidance of the Church. According to the 2010 census, the United States had 56,510,377 married couples with another 7,255,088 self-identified unmarried cohabiting couples, of whom 901,997 are in same-sex unions. In 1960 there were 450,000 cohabiting American couples reflecting a one thousand, six hundred, and twelve percent increase in cohabitation in 50 years.

In the European Union, 15 percent of Europeans are living together without the benefit of marriage rites, while in Great Britain the figure is closer to 30 percent and a full third of Scandinavian couples are cohabiting. In Southern Europe, where the Catholic Church is stronger, the living-in-sin rate hovers around five percent.

The increase in unmarried couples also increases the incidence of out-of-wedlock babies. In the United States, one in five unwed couples make babies where more than 40 percent of all births are to unwed mothers. Many couples use cohabitation as a step towards marriage and making a stable family unit. At any one time, about 10 percent of American couples living together are unwed. These couples sight several reasons for their choice: simple convenience, to share expenses, they don't believe in traditional marriage, to test the compatibility of the relationship, the fear of separation and divorce, and to fight off loneliness.

In Europe, Iceland has the highest out-of-wedlock birth rate where 67 percent of all Icelandic births are to unmarried mothers. Finland is the only Scandinavian country to have an out-of-wedlock birthrate below the 50 percent mark. The United Kingdom's 2012 unwed birthrate stood at 48 percent, below most of Scandinavia but above Finland's. Italy's unwed mother birthrate soared from the beginning of the turn of the millennium at 9.9 percent to 28 percent in 2012. Only Greece, the home of the Greek Orthodox Church, shows a single digit unwed mother birthrate. Its 2012 figure stood at 7.6 percent.

The Pope has been generous with his celebration of the Sacraments. As the 266th man to wear the Shoes of the Fisherman, he is trying to spread the teachings of the Catholic Church through example, that the Church should exemplify the humility of Christ and His compassion. The Gospels are replete with Jesus' caring compassion and His understanding of people caught in difficult circumstances.

Donning a deacon's stole, Francis has washed the feet of prisoners and the disabled ... a woman and a Muslim. He has baptized the baby of a Catholic couple who were in a civil marriage but not married in the Church when another priest refused, thus opening up a life of faith for the child. The Pope says that priests who are overly mired in bureaucratic red tape and refuse to provide Sacramental care to the faithful are "hypocrites."

Pope Francis has visited Israel and has welcomed Orthodox patriarchs to the Vatican helping to thaw, just a little, Eastern and Western ecumenical relations and perhaps start healing the rift caused by the Great Schism. He is also making plans to visit Turkey, a Islamic country to meet with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and celebrate with him the Feast of St. Andrew. As Pope, he has twice met the Archbishop of Canterbury and the two are forging a friendship the same way that Rowan Williams and Benedict XVI did. He also met with Queen Elizabeth II not only as a head of state -- the Queen of England -- but also as a religious leader -- the Supreme Governor of the Church of England and Defender of the Faith, a title bestowed on the British crown by Pope Leo X when he conveyed it to King Henry VIII.

He is non judgmental and has famously or infamously said, "Who am I to judge," when speaking with journalists aboard his airplane "Shepherd One" about gay priests in the ranks. However open he may be, he is not backing down on established Catholic teaching but rather trying to get the Church to be more pastoral and compassionate in dealing with human sinfulness, pain and hurt of men and women to bring them back into the fullness of the faith. He has been grossly misunderstood by the secular media, much of the non-Catholic public, and many Catholics as well.

The Pope isn't changing Church doctrine, but he is showing his brother bishops and priests, through example, how to be more pastoral with those who have trouble following Church's doctrines and moral teachings to gently lead them back into authentically living the faith once delivered unto the Saints. A lesson The Episcopal Church needs to learn.

Traditionalists see his various actions as scandalous where the Pope is seeking to bring humble simplicity to the papacy, which has been increasingly entrenched in rigidity and wrapped in dictates of the Code of Canon Law, many times driving away those very Christians who need to experience the touch of Christ that can come only through the Sacraments. In many ways similar to how Justin Welby is warming up to his role as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Both men need to be commended for their willingness to take the their primatial ministries beyond church expectations and either stand barefooted in cold water to bring souls into the Church or unite cohabiting couples in Holy Matrimony to bring them into the fullness of Sacramental life. In both cases, souls have been changed by the generosity of pastoral action on the part of top leaders in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.

Mary Ann Mueller is a journalist living in Texas. She is a regular contributor to VirtueOnline