Confirmation
Q. What is Confirmation?
A. Confirmation is the rite in which we express a mature commitment to Christ, and receive strength from the Holy Spirit through prayer and the laying on of hands by a bishop.
Q. What is required of those to be confirmed? A. It is required of those to be confirmed that they have been baptized, are sufficiently instructed in the Christian Faith, are penitent for their sins, and are ready to affirm their confession of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
(From An Outline of the Faith, commonly called the Catechism, p. 860, Book of Common Prayer 1979)
Curricular Resources: AN OVERVIEW OF CONFIRMATION RESOURCES
Copies of many of these materials can be borrowed from the Resource Center at St. Thomas, Sunnyvale. You can browse and order materials online or call them directly at 408-736-4155.
Questions to keep in mind when developing a Confirmation program:
- Are the participant's active in the congregation, and are they personally ready to make a mature affirmation of their Baptismal Vows?
- Are the following elements part of our holistic program?
- Worship & prayer
- Service & outreach
- Fun & fellowship
- Spirituality - can each individual write a spiritual autobiography?
- Participation in the life of the worshipping community - youth group, usher, choir, acolyte, Vestry, Outreach, assist with Church School, etc.
- Does the confirmand have a mentor or adult spiritual guide (not their parent) who is an active member of the parish for whom they can discuss their questions, hopes and fears about their faith?
- Is there a way for the newly confirmed to enter into a new role as an adult member of the parish community? (Hopefully, confirmation is not seen as "graduation" from religious education!)
Confirm Not Conform:
St. John's, Oakland has created a unique Confirmation program that is being piloted across the country. For more information, please contact Kellor Smith, Molly Darling or Scott Denman at (510) 339-2200.
My Faith, My Life: A Teen's Guide to The Episcopal Church by Jennifer Gamber (2006:Morehouse Publishing) is written for teens as they explore The Episcopal Church and prepare for Confirmation. Chapters include The Bible, Baptism, Church History, Prayer, Worship, The Episcopal Church and more.
Making Disciples by William Willimon (Logos Productions) Making Disciples is a mentor-based confirmation program that pairs confirmands with adult mentors and guides them through a variety of learning experiences that will strengthen the student's understanding of the faith while connecting him or her with the community of believers in a personal way. It can be used as a stand-alone program, or in conjunction with your current curriculum as a special experiential unit.
Affirming Faith: A Congregation's Guide to Confirmation (United Church of Christ; United Church Press, 1996)
Ages: 12-16 years
Goals: Faith formation - to aid persons in affirming and renewing faith; "connecting with the congregation through mentoring, witness, service projects, field trips, retreats, liturgical resources
Foundation: UCC Statement of Faith
Time frame: 90-minute sessions - 25 sessions
Claim the Name (United Methodist Church; Cokesbury, 2000)
Age; 6th - 8th Grade
Goal: For youth to claim the name Christian.
- Accept the salvation god offers them in Christ
- To know how to live as Christians in our materialistic and individualistic culture
- To be able to responds to the pressures and realities of life as Christ's disciples as they continue to go on to Christ's perfection
Understanding of Confirmation: "To make firm or solid that which has gone before or was done before." Emphasis has been shifted from polity to faith; from membership to discipleship. We confirm what God has already done in baptism; it is an act of the Holy Spirit and a means of grace.
Foundation: We help youth make a faith commitment by providing youth with stories of persons of faith who stood out against the culture of their time; we are honest about being in relationship with God - not because of parents or peers; it is a journey with Christ
Time frame: 6-15 weeks
Confirmed: Anointed & Sealed (Roman Catholic; Living the Good News, 1997)
Ages: 7-17 years
Goal: To have candidates take into their minds and hearts theological concepts and important church teachings on the sacraments that will be manifest in their attitudes and behaviors.
Understanding of Confirmation: Confirmation is about sealing the transformation through the Holy Spirit received at baptism. The Rite of Confirmation presumes the candidate was baptized as an infant and raised within the Christian household of faith. Preparation for Confirmation is not considered a time to review a summary of all Christian teaching.
Foundation: Based on the Rite of Confirmation (Roman Catholic)
- In Confirmation we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
- To help us be more like Christ in the world: ministries in the church, work for the transformation of society, openness to the Spirit
- Confirmation is a celebration of the whole parish
Time frame: Confirmation prep is two years
Diocese of Albany: Diocesan Confirmation Workbook (Episcopal; Episcopal Diocese of Albany, 2002)
Ages: 16 years
Goal: To undergird people's understanding of the Christian Faith and help them commit/recommit their lives to Jesus Christ. Understanding of Confirmation: Commissioning of adults to Baptismal
Ministry; it is a vital sacrament of Apostolic Formation.
Foundation: Provides the intellectual content for a leadership team in each parish to assist students in developing the faith and commitment which fills out the content of the course; includes sponsor/mentor, retreats, service and mission, and participation in diocesan educational programs such as Cursillo, Alpha, Disciple, Happening.
Time frame: 9 months - two years
The Great Adventure: Exploring Christian Faith with Young People (Anglican Church of Canada; Anglican Book Centre, 1997)
Ages: 10-15 years
Goals: Help students examine Christian beliefs at their stage of faith development
Understanding of Confirmation:
- Baptism conveys full membership in the church.
- Confirmation is an important sacramental rite by which young people reaffirm for themselves the baptismal promises made on their behalf in infancy, and make a commitment to appropriate adult ministry in the church and in everyday life.
- Everyone is a learner - children, adolescents, adults. Christian education is life-long.
- There are many different learning styles.
Foundation: The Book of Alternative Services and using literature to explore the Christian faith (such as the works of CS Lewis)
Time Frame: 6-12 weeks of 90 minutes each
Grow in Grace: A Confirmation Workbook (Episcopal; Morehouse Publishing, 1979, 1989)
Ages: Grades 5-8
Understanding of Confirmation: Confirmation is a "joyful expression of a growing desire to know and serve Christ in and through the church
Foundation: Theological and liturgical stance of the Episcopal Church; follows the Catechism
Time frame: 10 sessions
Head to Heart (Independent; Faith Inkubators, 2001)
Ages: 12-15 year olds
Goal: A holistic, relational, arts-based small group ministry concept blurring the lines between Christian education and pastoral care while growing intentional, surrogate, adoptive, intergenerational "Faith Families" in the body of Christ.
Understanding of Confirmation: "Head to Heart Confirmation Ministry" strives to grow junior high small groups into senior high small groups and bond them as living cells into the body of Christ.
Time frame: 16 set series - 32 weeks
I Will, With God's Help (Episcopal; Living the Good News, 2000)
Goal: Encourages youth and adults to enter into a uniquely Episcopal - yet profoundly Christian - faith journey.
Understanding of Confirmation: Confirmation is a time to acknowledge that we are baptized into union with Christ by making a public statement; through the bishop's participation in the rite, Confirmands are physically connected to the diocese, the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion; it is a commissioning for ministry; the renewal of one's baptismal covenant - a public, voluntary reaffirmation of Christian identity.
Foundation: Built on the Baptismal Covenant from the Book of Common Prayer, includes reading the Gospel of Luke
Time frame: 6-12 weeks
Journey to Adulthood (Episcopal; LeaderResources, 2002)
Ages: 6th grade - 12th grade (11-18 years) - Confirmation to take place around age 16 years
Goal: A program of spiritual formation for young people that provides a liturgical frame for their experience in our modern culture, celebrates their individuality and their creative potential, and instructs them in skills needed for successful adult participation in church and society. Following the imperatives of the Baptismal Covenant, it enables young people to discover and experience the love of God in three phases. It seeks to integrate four aspects of being human (self, society, sexuality, spirituality) into a harmonious whole.
Understanding of Confirmation: Mature re-affirmation of baptismal vows (this is not a Confirmation curriculum but a formational program which supports delaying Confirmation until age 15 or 16). Confirmation becomes a mature decision made by spiritually-equipped young people and places it in its proper context, not as a rite of passage or exit ritual, but a chance for the individual youth to confirm that which was said for them and to them at their Baptism. It is their chance to stand before the community of faith and make a public declaration of their understanding of their place in the journey of faith and their desire and willingness to continue along the journey with us, all together, in the Body of Christ.
Foundation: Manhood and womanhood are gifts from God. Adulthood must be earned. Emphasis placed on celebration and responsibility, on what we have been freely given and what we must earn. Each segment of the program has in common a systematic focus on all the aspects of a whole person: Self, Society, Sexuality and Spirituality - each covered in light of the Gospel.
Time frame: 6 or 7 years
Keeping the Promise: A Mentoring Program for Confirmation in the Episcopal Church (Episcopal; Morehouse Publishing, 1994)
Age: 16 years
Goals: Aims to bring younger and older Christians together to explore our common inheritance in the Christian faith. The purpose is not just to learn the "facts," but to connect the experience of teenagers with the Christian tradition as conveyed in the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, and the saints of the local congregation. Together they attend a healing service, vestry meeting, soup kitchen. There is a private meeting scheduled with a priest, a Vigil on the eve of Confirmation and a 'declaration of commitment' to the process Understanding of Confirmation: A mature public affirmation of Baptism with the laying on of hands by the Bishop.
Foundation: Follows "The Catechism" using a mentor & confirmand's edition
Time frame: Meet once a week for one hour - 9 sessions (three months)
Much of this information was gathered by the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut's Resource Center.