Having just had a wonderful confirmation service at St. Paul’s yesterday in which 18 were confirmed and another 4 were received into The Episcopal Church, I am now more confused than ever about how to feel about this sacrament.

In seminary, our liturgics professor, argued that confirmation is unnecessary: that baptism is all that is required of Christians and Anglicans.  This dovetails nicely with the baptismal theology of the Prayer Book and Canada’s Book of Alternative Services.  When I told him that I was asked to lead a confirmation class, his response was akin to “don’t” or “why?”.

I’ve also heard that the original draft of the last Prayer Book didn’t have Confirmation at all, but that the bishops forced it back in.  Out of fear that they would have nothing to do, I guess.

But the common understanding of Confirmation today is that it is a mature declaration of faith.  That a “mature” (read: adult) person that was baptized as a child may have a sacrament that affirms their commitment to following Jesus.

At the same time, we have two significant conflicts with fully embodying this principle.

1. Our tradition is to confirm teens.
2. Our canons require confirmation to serve on the vestry and seek ordination.

So we have this expectation that as soon as children hit puberty (or before in many cases), we have to start preparing these “kids” for confirmation.  Similarly, some argue that we have to do it before high school or else “we’ll lose ‘em,” which I’m not sure why confirmation would have the desired effect of entrapment.  At the same time, we are saying one thing “baptism is your dance card” while also saying “if you want to have any role of influence or authority in the church, you have to join this special club (for “mature” people).”

As you can see, both of these things are in direct conflict with the theology undergirding Confirmation.  So I say eliminate the conflicts.

But where I’m confused is less the theology, and more the practice.

In the Diocese of Western Michigan, we just completed this amazing practice of taking the better part of last year to write a customary that would be the understood common practice throughout the diocese for confirmation.  These practices fully embody the spirit of the theology and would drive those ‘conflictors’ crazy because the most important part of confirmation now must be maturity and declaration of faith.  This means that the person must 1) take it seriously and mean it, 2) understand what s/he is declaring, and 3) want to do this.  Amazing stuff.  It probably means fewer will be confirmed, but those that are will be the better for it.

The Bishop also practices regional confirmations, meaning all the confirmands in the deanery (grouping of churches) gather for a special service together.  Many of those that have been confirmed in this way swear by it.  The Bishop argues that if he is to do confirmations every Sunday, it detracts from 1) what can be done at the visitation in terms visioning and 2) he only gets to preach one sermon.

Participating in a congregational confirmation service in which some visitors made special trips to attend their loved one’s confirmation in a packed house was pretty awesome.  And the Bishop didn’t preach on confirmation, but stayed pretty close to the gospel.

So here is where my confusion comes in.  I’m still not sure about best practice.  I wore red socks yesterday, because, like an ordination, I wanted to celebrate in the Spirit’s outpouring on these twenty-two Episcopalians.  I found myself thinking that a gospel about John and James jockeying for position at the top of the disciples heap had some good things to say about discipleship, following Jesus, and of course, confirmation.  And that many of our Gospel lessons lend themselves well to the theme of confirmation.  At the same time, few congregations are able to produce twenty-two strong candidates, and the Bishop’s visitation was, in many ways, overshadowed by confirmation.

Perhaps I should just go back to my professor’s base question: why?  I have a feeling our bishops would have enough to do if we stopped focusing on confirmation.