Confirmation...of what?

BY Pastor Barb

During the program year we gather around a table in Fellowship Hall after worship each
Sunday for Confirmation class. This year we’re being “intergenerational”—adults are invited as well as youth, not as supervisors or teachers but as learners along with our young people. “Confirmation” may seem like a funny word to use for a faith milestone. In baptism we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The community of faith—the congregation, our parents, and our “sponsors” or godparents—promise to support our faith development: to see that we will “live among God’s faithful people, bring us to hear the Word and receive Holy Communion, teach us the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Creed, put Scripture into our hands, and nurture us in faith and prayer so that we may learn to trust God, proclaim Christ through word and deed, care for others and the world God made, and work for justice and peace.” So, it might be easier to understand the Confirmation rite as an “Affirmation of Baptism.” When we reach a certain age and have engaged in a certain amount of preparation, we are ready to take on responsibility for these promises ourselves—to claim full ownership of our own growing faith, and of our own relationship with God. Our congregation invites any who are interested to join in, whatever your age. With diverse perspectives around the table, we’ll talk about life (and death), faith and doubt, and bring our deepest questions. And we’ll develop our skill at seeing God in the midst of all of it. You are invited! *