Liturgy also includes thinking about the people who are the users of a rite. This is because we have to help them to ‘own’ it and also because it will embody the theology of what we are doing and so we need to have some ideas of what’s going on in God’s economy into which this rite/service fits and how we help the participants to use the rite to situate themselves in God’s economy /narrative.

So, here’s a reflection on the idea of what Confirmation could mean.

As we prepare young people for confirmation, are we preparing them to embrace their God-given ministries? Are we empowering them to ask questions about how they might participate in God’s mission to the world? Are we encouraging them to dream God’s dreams for the world they know (and the one we find so mysterious)?

If the church is going to thrive, and to minister in all generations, we need to create more space for young people to take ownership of their faith and opportunities for them to embrace the ministries of the church. It is part of the Baptismal Covenant, after all.

Could confirmation be the place where this could happen?

Of course, confirmation is fraught with difficulties, some of which this attempts to deal with. The first difficulty is its relationship to baptism; if baptism is Christian initiation, then some of the claims made for confirmation are overblown (and the BCP doesn’t help here); it shouldn’t be treated as if it were a kind of final stage of baptism. The main purpose for it it to ratify ones infant baptism as an adult. But that seems a little thin which is where the kind of suggestion in this article comes in. I would suggest that confirmation should be linked with taking adult responsibility in church government; ie when one can vote in PCC and similar elections and perhaps exercise other ministries as an adult.

The other difficulty, of course, is what about people who are baptised as adults? If confirmation is an adult ratification, what need is there of it for such people? At the moment it is a requirement of canon law for people who will want to hold church office to be confirmed and for regular communicants to be confirmed. So for some, perhaps many, confirmation is entry to communicate status (though if baptism is complete, then theologically the only qualification for communicate status is baptism). Of course this is why the liturgies for baptising those who are ‘of riper years’ actually gives a strong steer towards it also being confirmation at the same service.

This site (US Episcopal) recaps what confirmation is not and attempts a few suggestions as to wwhat it is, however, I don’t think successfully or at least fully convincingly; it still seems to be a rite in search of a theology. Not least because the ‘personal Pentecost’ idea points to an experiential dimension which is often not fully there, and which for a number of candidates, may already have been experienced.

So we tend to be left with a rite that is saying, in effect, now you are officially recognised as a full (adult) member of the church.

So the suggestion from Empire Remixed is worth reflecting on further as being one approach which does have some merit.

The C of E official position is here.

via Graduation Confirmed « Empire Remixed.

Please do add comments if you find other helpful sites on Confirmation.