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Confirmation for Young People at Trinity
| (Adults often ask about being Confirmed or Received in the Episcopal Church -- this is definitely NOT a process reserved for young people! For information about Confirmation or Reception for adults, please check our Membership page.) |
What the Book of Common Prayer says about Confirmation:In the course of their Christian development, those baptized at an early age are expected, when they are ready and have been duly prepared, to make a mature public affirmation of their faith and commitment to the responsibilities of the Baptism and to receive the laying on of hands by the bishop. (BCP page 412)
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The Confirmation process at Trinity Lime Rock:Most of our Confirmands begin the process of preparation via Sunday School attendance. While in Sunday School they not only are introduced to the tenets of their faith, but they also serve as acolytes, participate in our Christmas Pageants and other dramatic and musical presentations, learn to take important roles in worship on our Youth Sundays, and participate in outreach activities. But this is not true of all of our Confirmands. The first we see of some of our young people is at the beginning in the school year in which they are to be confirmed. Some of them come to us while they are boarding students at nearby Indian Mountain School or Hotchkiss and are living away from home during ages typical for confirmation. Others are new to the area. Still others who may have been involved in another faith community (or in no faith community at all) find that an awareness or questioning of their place in the universe brings them to investigate Confirmation at Trinity. Some just come because their friends are coming. When our young people enter the year in which they will turn 13 or are in the 7th grade in school, the process of preparation accelerates. That year, often -- but not always -- beginning in the Fall, they join a Confirmation class, jointly instructed by a dedicated parishioner and Trinity's clergy, that meets outside "normal church hours" weekly until Confirmation takes place in the Spring; perhaps that year, or perhaps a year or two after that. Not all begin at age 13; increasingly we find that young people are in their middle teens when they undertake preparation for Confirmation. They are a bit more mature at this point, and better able to understand and relate to the material at this point in their lives. Interestingly, not all members of our Confirmation classes have been baptized as infants, or, in some cases, at all. While the actual rite of Confirmation has baptism as a prerequisite (Baptism in any Christian faith is accepted, not just the Episcopal church), having not been baptized as an infant or child is no barrier to Confirmation class membership. In fact, for two recent consecutive years we baptized a Confirmation class member during their Confirmation class membership year, one of them on the morning of her Confirmation! Some years the class meets on a weekday evening, and other years the meeting is on the weekend. Scheduling depends on the needs of the Confirmands -- some of whom may well be here only on weekends, all have school schedules to consider (which typically vary widely between our local Region I schools, local private schools such as Indian Mountain School and Hotchkiss, and both public and private schools in New York City), and many have compelling obligations outside church -- and the availability of the instructors. Thus, the schedule changes from class to class, from year to year, and even within the same confirmation year. Actual Confirmation generally takes place in the Spring. In some years, we participate in a Deanery-wide confirmation. More recently we have joined with other parishes in our area to hold a confirmation. In a new Diocesan policy, confirmation may be performed at the confirmand's home parish during the scheduled Episcopal visitation. All of these approaches have benefits and disadvantages, and which we will do in a particular year depends on a variety of factors, not the least important of which is the preference of the confirmands themselves. For the most recent confirmation class, actual Confirmation took place May 22, 2010 and was held at St. John's Church in Salisbury. Trinity had three members confirmed at that service.
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Some of our earlier confirmation classes:
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