St. George’s will be having a service of confirmation on Pentecost Sunday, the 12th of June. If you’re wondering whether confirmation is right for you, below are some questions to ask yourself. If your answer to each of the questions is ‘yes’ then please consider registering with the church office (905-335-6222).
- Are you over 13?
- Have you been baptized?
- Are you a believing christian?
- Do you want to publicly confess your faith?
- Do you want the bishop to pray for the infilling of the Spirit and for empowerment of service and boldness in your christian walk
Confirmation involves three aspects:
The first is to provide an opportunity to profess publically one’s personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for those who were baptized previously–especially if this took place before one could make this profession of one’s own volition. In this it is similar in its intent to baptism for those who are able to profess a conscious faith in Christ.
The second goes beyond this by providing an opportunity to offer oneself in service to the Lord with the goal of seeking God’s call in one’s life.
The third aspect follows from the first two in recognizing that one cannot profess faith in Christ or follow Christ’s call apart from the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, one receives the Laying on of Hands by the bishop for filling and strengthening by the Holy Spirit in order to receive power and gifts (or to strengthen and focus gifts God has already given) to fulfill God’s calling. In the Book of Common Prayer the Order of Confirmation is also entitled “Laying on of Hands with Prayer for those that are baptized and come to years of discretion”.
It is important to recognize that one is not confirming his or her faith in Anglicanism but in the Lord Jesus Christ. This must be done in one Christian context or another and in this case the context is Anglican which is one branch of Christ’s one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. The whole point of true Anglicanism is that it points one to faith in Jesus as one’s Saviour and Lord–the only Name given by which we must be saved and the only Lord to whom every knee shall bow.
The reason that Confirmation or Re-affirmation is done by the Bishop is that he represents both the breadth and depth of the Church referred to in the last point. The Church is universal–for all people–through all ages. The bishop represents the historical continuity of the Christian faith and the connection to the wider community of believers–ultimately throughout the world.
