Confirming our Faith

I think I was about 12 or 13 years old. I was sitting in a classroom at our local church with a table filled with adults who were moving through the catechism found in the back of the Book of Common Prayer beginning on page 845. I am pretty sure that it was my confirmation class, and it was being facilitated by my own mother! I don’t remember many other youth in the room, but I do remember being interested in the conversations that were happening as the beliefs of The Episcopal Church were being explored in this small group of people preparing for the bishop’s visit to our small parish.

Later that year, I was duly confirmed by The Rt. Rev. Chip Marble. I was probably too young to be confirmed. I vaguely remember kneeling down in front of the bishop for confirmation, but the overall meaning of the service was lost on me. I was doing it more or less because it was a rite of passage that was expected of young teenagers. Though I was glad to have been confirmed later in my life, my 13 year old self had not put much thought into what I was answering in the service or what I was doing: professing a faith in God through Christ and promising to follow in the ways of Christ in my life.

This fall, I am back in a classroom with a mixed group of youth and adults who are interested in being confirmed when our bishop, The Rt. Rev. Jennifer Reddall, makes her bi-annual visitation to Epiphany. Similar to my own experience, we have some youth and some adults in the room. We explore different topics each week and break into small group discussions to explore the topic according to our stage in life. I can say that I have thoroughly enjoyed our discussions - especially the insights that our youth are sharing with me as we discover belief together.

On Sunday morning, we, as a community, are being invited to come alongside our fellow disciples through a service called “Welcoming Candidates for Confirmation, Reception, and the Reaffirmation of Baptismal Vows.” Rather than being a stand alone liturgy, it is added to our normal Sunday morning worship pattern and is an invitation for all of us at Epiphany to support those seeking confirmation, reception, or reaffirmation of baptismal vows. Through prayer, candidates for confirmation, reception, or reaffirmation are committing themselves to growing deeper in their faith lives through the study of baptismal worship, the regular attendance at worship, and by committing their lives to a life of service for the poor and the outcast and towards the work of justice and peace. The commitment they are making is nothing less than the commitment that each of us makes first in our baptism and secondly in our confirmation. And, of course, we are supposed to maintain those commitments in the ways that we continue to study Holy Scripture, tend to our own baptismal promises, attend worship, and work for the building up of a more just and loving society.

The journey of faith is not a journey that we make alone. We journey alongside one another, and we are strengthened in our faith with and through those who are our sojourners even if only for a little while. We, too, are being invited along for the journey towards confirmation, reception, or reaffirmation, and we have an opportunity to do so in a particular way. I have invited each person in the confirmation class to seek out a mentor in the congregation. The mentor’s role is to have conversations with the person they are mentoring as they make this journey and to be the person who presents our confirmands to the Bishop on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. If you are approached by one of our confirmands, I hope that you will prayerfully consider how the Holy Spirit is inviting you along on this journey, and even if you are not asked, I hope that you will make the journey with this particular group of disciples who will have the opportunity to make promises to God through the sacrament of confirmation, reception, or reaffirmation.

Though my memory of my confirmation service is rather fuzzy, I can appreciate the vows I made before my bishop and my congregation when I was confirmed. Since that time, I have journeyed with different parishes and with the support of new sojourners. I have learned more about faith with and in the different parishes I have attended and served, and not unlike any other person, my own faith journey continues alongside people who have much to offer to me as I grow and discover more about the mystery of God.

Who has been a faith mentor to you in your life? How has God invited you to be a mentor to another? What are ways that you are living our your baptismal promises today?

In Christ,

Hunter+