Confirmation

Confirmation at Redeemer

We hope Confirmation, both the class and Confirmation Sunday, is used by God in a person's spiritual formation, whether they are fifteen or fifty. We hope they stand before people who love them, say out loud what they believe, and receive the Bishop's prayer. And we hope the whole community of Redeemer stands beside them and says: we see you, we are praying for you, and we are with you!

Starting with Baptism

Baptism is a Sacrament instituted by Christ, an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. In baptism, God truly acts: we are united with Christ in his death and resurrection, welcomed into his Church, and called into a new life of faith and obedience. We are saved by grace through faith, and baptism is the ordinary way Christ brings us into his Body. Redeemer gladly baptizes both the children of Christian parents and those who come to faith later in life. Either way, there is one baptism, and the Christian life that follows is a lifelong growing into it.

Two Pathways, One Destination

Those baptized as infants grow in the faith, receive Communion, and from eighth grade on are invited to take the promises of their baptism upon themselves. Those who come to faith later profess it, are baptized, and may then pursue Confirmation. For parents who wish to wait on baptism, we offer a Child Blessing, where the congregation promises prayer and support until the child can profess faith for themselves. Both pathways lead to a person saying in their own voice, I believe, and being commissioned to serve the Lord.

Why Confirmation?

It deepens what baptism began.

Through the Bishop's laying on of hands, we pray for a daily increase of the Holy Spirit. This is not a second conversion. It is the church saying: what God started in you, we are asking him to continue and complete.

It invites us to step forward.

Confirmands renew the promises of their baptism and commit to following Jesus more intentionally within the life of the church.

It is a long Anglican tradition.

Scripture shows the Apostles praying for and laying hands on the baptized, and Anglicans have treasured the rite ever since, as a moment when the Bishop comes in person to commission the next generation of disciples.

It marks a real moment.

We surround graduations, weddings, and ordinations with ceremony because ceremony names what is happening. The move from inherited faith to owned faith deserves the same.

It connects us to the whole church.

Everyone going through confirmation is paired with a sponsor, another member of the congregation (for youth, someone other than a parent), so no one is just their parents' kid here. They belong to the whole community.

Who It Is For and What It Involves

Confirmation is open to baptized teenagers from eighth grade and up, and to baptized adults, including those baptized in other Christian traditions or raised in the church who never made a public affirmation of faith. It includes a series of classes on the core of the faith (the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the Sacraments, and the story of the church), a sponsor who prays, shares coffee or a meal, and walks alongside, and a public Confirmation service where participants affirm their faith and are commissioned by the Bishop.

What Confirmation Is Not

It is not a graduation from the faith or the finish line. It is a beginning. It is also never coercive. We welcome doubts and questions, and the process is exactly the place to bring them. We are not looking for the absence of questions, but for a genuine desire to follow Jesus and keep seeking him.

Redeemer believes the faith once delivered to the saints is worth passing on, explaining, celebrating, and owning. We would be honored to walk with you through it.