It is good for believers to profess the Faith in public.
If you have not yet been baptized, or if you were baptized when you were younger, and now feel a sense of renewed Christian commitment, you can read more about baptism and the reaffirmation of baptismal vows here. You might also like to share your testimony in church or on our Podcast, especially if you are entering a new phase in your faith or if God has done something significant for you lately.
But, in addition to this, if you would like to mark your membership of the wider Anglican Church, there are two other more formal ways in which you can profess your faith in public, these are Confirmation and Reception.
Confirmation
“In Confirmation, through the Bishop’s laying on of hands and prayer for daily increase in the Holy Spirit, God strengthens the believer for Christian life in the service of Christ and his kingdom. Grace is God’s gift, and we pray that he will pour out his Holy Spirit on those who have already been made his children by adoption and grace.”
Reception
“Those having made adult professions of faith in other Christian traditions may also be received into the Anglican Church with prayer and the laying on of hands by a Bishop.” Book of Common Prayer page 174.
How to Arrange a Confirmation or Reception Service
There was a time when confirmation was something almost everyone did, usually in their early teens, and it was commonplace for churches to offer a class in preparation for the day. Sometimes people even refused to receive Holy Communion until this event, even though they were baptized and loved the Lord already. We have discovered in our setting that often it was counter-productive to do it that way; it undermined the significance of baptism, created an artificial divide between Anglicans and believers from other traditions, and even gave the sense that it was just another thing to check off a list.
Today, confirmation is no longer a rite of passage, but closer to the tradition of publicly confirming what is already true and seeking more of the Holy Spirit.
Accordingly, there is not a class or a course that one must go through, instead, confirmation is available to anyone who is a member of our church. In practice, a member is simply a believer who:
- Commits (affirms the historic creeds and commits to Jesus Christ as Lord and savior)
- Connects (attends worship services as a priority)
- Contributes (is involved in the life of the church, making regular gifts of time and money in an age appropriate way)
These are such strikingly counter-cultural things, that if they are true of you, it would be very obvious, and easy to confirm. If this is you, then we would love to celebrate it and pray for the Holy Spirit to strengthen you further in your faith.
If by this definition you are not yet a member, you can read more about becoming one here.
Services of Confirmation and Reception are led by our Bishop. He usually visits us at Pentecost.
5/5/21
