Confirmation

To be a Christian means to follow in the way of Christ - to follow his example - it is a way of life that involves at least three things.

1. what we believe

2. how we should behave

3. worship and prayer

Confirmation is a way to enable people to enjoy and experience full membership of the Christian Church. When you are confirmed, you will be able to receive bread and wine in a service of Holy Communion. 

At the service of baptism parents affirm their intention to bring their children up in a Christian home. When those children grow up and are old enough to answer for themselves, they can publicly renew those promises and ask God to strengthen,  that is confirm their life of Christian discipleship. So, it is about identifying with Christ and full membership of the Church.

Confirmation and the Seven-fold gifts of the Spirit. 

In the Confirmation service we are reminded of the seven-fold gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are the gifts of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and inward strength; The spirit of knowledge and true godliness; And the gift of holy fear.These are the gifts that the Holy Spirit has promised to give to us all, if only we will accept them and develop them.

Wisdom - an almost indefinable quality, but it has something to do with experience - A wise person is one who not only knows a lot, but also has the experience to use their knowledge to the full in particular circumstances. All our experience is very limited - The wisdom the Holy Spirit offers us is grounded in the infinite experience of God. Understanding - surely the Christian ought above all to understand in view of the understanding God shows toward us. And in the other sense of the word understanding didn’t Jesus say that the Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth. Counsel - Christians should be the sort of people to whom others turn naturally and with confidence for help and advice - Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would tell us what to say. Inward Strength - Spiritual strength - how much we need this if we are to stand firm in all trials and temptations. Knowledge - not just in the sense of being able to pass examinations and write encyclopaedias, but knowledge of God, and of his whole creation. True godliness - we are made in the image of God - on our own we can never live up to our true nature. And holy fear - not being frightened of God. We know that our Father is not a cruel tyrant - but we must have proper respect for Almighty God, recognising our unworthiness and his infinite majesty and patience and goodness. Such are the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

These gifts have been promised to us all - we can shut them away in a cupboard and forget about them - carry on after a fashion in our own strength - Or we can, as God wants us to, co-operate God in developing them to the full in our lives.

Fathr David