Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the technical question. Not sure it is my department but no one else is giving an answer, so here goes....

Baptism is God's work usually performed with human agents. In fact you might go as far as saying that if God didn't involve human agents then people would tend to have a hard time convincing anyone else they really were baptised. You can imagine the conversation (in the style of John Cleese (or his mother in law -- can't remember which)), "it's funny that, our Teresa was done by the vicar 'n you say God did yours then"... "'aving a laugh are you, I mean what was 'e wearing then?".... "oh right -- I stand corrected, 'the INVISIBLE God did yours then' -- so it must be true. God did it...." You get the picture.

Now, once you have accepted the basic premiss that baptism is God's work then whether or not God chooses to involve human beings and whether or not they are baptised are somewhat moot points. I tend to the view that if God chooses to baptise someone on the proverbial desert island, then even the sand will cry out until the deed is done. OK, I admit it. I just stopped beating about the bush. I strongly hold said view.

Having said that I also strongly hold the opposite view. Absolutely no-one is baptised without human agents who usually take the form of ordained church leaders. Now ordained church leaders tend to be both confirmed and also baptised although I note this is not universal practise and 2010 years of church history has plenty to teach in this area. It seems likely therefore in a roundabout kind of way that most (human agents of God) 'baptisers' are baptised.

Now you asked about official and general opinions on this matter. I do also follow the, 'hem, slightly tongue in cheek respect agenda -- equivocally even. The general opinion is absolutely no-one NEEDS to be baptised to baptise anyone else at all ever. For example the acting leader of the opposition baptised the prime minister recently -- with an argument he didn't address in prime minister questions. I read the front page of the Daily Mail in the Trinity Coffee Shop this evening  and washed my hands later .

All for now,

As ever,

Joc

PS I take it your follow-up question is not "does someone NEED to be a confirmed [insert noun of choice] to confirm someone else?" to which all I would say is, "if you need to ask the question, you probably won't understand the answer."