Guidelines For Planning A Confirmation Service

The following article presents guidelines for planning a confirmation service, based on theological, pastoral, and liturgical rationale.

The Occasion It is desirable that the service of confirmation be planned to coincide with one of the great, evangelically significant times of the year: Easter, Pentecost, or some other festival belonging to the church's proclamation of the gospel through the stewardship of liturgical time. As to its hour, it should clearly not be at a time outside the accustomed gathering for congregational worship. Confirmation is not merely an individual or a family event, but an ecclesial one. A congregation should be present to give its vocal support to its members. Since the substance of the act is the renewing of the promises of baptism, if confirmation can coincide with some actual baptisms, the two ritual actions—the initial making of promises by some persons and the later reaffirming of those same promises by others—will inform one another. (Perhaps it should go without saying—except that redundancy is a perennial failing of liturgy—that a liturgical event which combines two or more actions must be worked out so as to be clear and well-shaped and to avoid duplications of acts and words.) Service of the Word The specific action of confirmation—a Christian's renewal of the covenant of baptism—should take place in the midst of the reading of Scriptures, the singing of psalms (psalms such as Psalm 1 or Psalm 139:1–9, for example), and the proclaiming of the Word. The origin of the act is, in one sense, within the awareness of a particular Christian who has come to a critical moment. Yet more profoundly, the origin of the act is within the divine redemptive initiative, which should be held before the congregation and the candidate through the biblical witness. Presentation and Sponsorship. Whoever comes to confirm the promises of his/her baptism has been supported, and will continue to be supported, in a congregation of believers. This shared support should be represented at the confirmation itself by persons who have been and who pledge themselves to continue to be close to the confirmand. Christians are members of one another. We grow towards maturity in Christ in a community of caring, giving, and forgiving people—a fact which should be exhibited at confirmation by persons who present the confirmand and promise their continued interest and faithfulness. Such persons speak for themselves and for the congregation. Minister In churches with episcopal order and a sacramental tradition, the minister of confirmation has been the bishop. However, this ancient sacramental prerogative is not understood as a matter of divine order, and in the Roman church, presbyters may and do confirm adults who are baptized. (Anglican churches remain more rigid on the point.) However, in most churches, the minister of confirmation will be the local pastor—the person who has known and prepared the candidates. In the rite itself, the catechist/pastor is in a position to be friendly and familiar; yet being too chatty or informal would reduce the seriousness of the occasion for the confirmand and for the congregation. The introduction of little speeches might also create a distinction between those confirmands about whom a speech is made and those others who apparently merit no speech. Such distinctions will be noted and these distinctions are undesirable. Promises Since the pastoral intent of the rite is the renewal of the promises of baptism, those promises should figure in the service. If confirmation is combined with baptism, the promises of an actual baptism will be joined in by the congregation, including the candidates for confirmation. Otherwise, the service of confirmation should include the promises, joined in by all the baptized. The Apostles' Creed grew from the apostolic preaching as the affirmation Christians made at baptism. This creed represents the church's normative consent to the divine redemptive acts; its use in interrogatory form at baptism is one of the oldest traditions of the church. In the early decades, the creed formed the only explicit promise made at baptism, but in a community in which candidates came to baptism after years of catechesis, many commitments belonging to the Christian profession would be understood, without being stated. Today, many churches have set along with the creed some important pledges—pledges concerning such things as prayer and worship, engagement in witness, care for the needy, and commitment to social justice. Such promises must be carefully worded, so that, while persons make serious commitments, they are not asked to over-promise. Baptism is an occasion for hope, not for church-sponsored unreality. One wants wordings to which baptized persons can return repeatedly to orient themselves to central realities of belief and life. The fundamental Christian promises will have been formulated for use at baptism. At confirmation, they should be used without change and in their full form, not by title. The baptized congregation will collectively renew the baptismal covenant. What the confirmands do will minister to the community by inviting all to join in what they are doing. That being the case, the promises should be spoken at some central point in the liturgical event by everyone. The confirmands should not be asked to make these full promises individually, for that might imply that they need to restate personally what they have just said with the community or that the members of the congregation who have said the baptismal promises together, as part of the common Christian commitment, did not really mean them. The united pledge is to be seriously intended by everyone. However, it is surely appropriate (perhaps before the baptismal covenant is spoken by all) to ask the confirmands a question pertinent to their situation, something such as, "?Do you renew your commitment to Jesus Christ??" The confirmands may answer with "?I do?"; the pastor might say, "?Let all join in the affirmation of the promises of our baptism.?" Prayer Confirmation, like all the pastoral actions of the Christian church, is fundamentally effected, not by formula, but by prayer. Even though the liturgy of confirmation should not imply that the candidate is receiving the Holy Spirit for the first time, a prayer for the empowering of the Holy Spirit may well be part of the rite. Christians meet the Holy Spirit definitively when they become Christians; however, in the lifelong baptismal relation in which God is faithful, they will claim the Holy Spirit many times, as their experience requires. Indeed, in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is understood eschatologically, as the sign of the age to come. Thus the Spirit represents a Christian's future, as well as a Christian's past and present. The prayer should also ask for the faithfulness of the confirmands in their fundamental commitments as baptized Christians and for their continued participation in the mission of the Christian people. Action The prayer should be accompanied by actions—actions which demonstrate and seal the prayer, and prayer which interprets the actions. The tradition would suggest carrying out confirmation by the laying on of hands—a gesture of bonding, blessing, healing, designating, setting-apart—a powerful, wordless gesture which may mean what its context suggests it means. Some churches would prefer anointing with chrism. Others make some subordinate sprinkling with water, to connect the confirmation action with baptism. Ordinarily, the service of confirmation should lead directly into Holy Communion. It recalls baptism, and baptism, which is done to each Christian once, is the introduction to the often repeated action of the Holy Table. The confirmation, which recalls the first great sacrament of redemption, baptism, should culminate in the second, the Supper of the Lord. The confirmation has focused on individuals and their pilgrimage. It should be followed by the collective, uniting sign of Christian sustenance. (The confirmands should not receive Communion as a class, but with their families.) The entire event should be full of praise. The event may capture or bring to public expression some serious life-moments—some of them having conflict, struggle and pain behind them. However by the time such experience has come to this occasion of congregational liturgical expression, these serious life-moments should have been worked through, so that they can be expressed with joy and a sense of promise.