Confirmation

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

I suppose we are slightly But ----

Dorset Healthcare NHS Trust (Of which I was a Non-Exec Director ) had 7 Cottage Hospitals, including 2 for the Mentally Ill
We had only one Chaplain, and several local Vicars, acting in Locum.
The Chaplain was a wonderful After-Dinner Speaker, and although now retired, is still in demand -- for that function !
One of his Talks is entitled "Clerical Errors" (A good Pun !) in which he dscribes the pitfalls of the Calling.
Perhaps my favourite is the "Wrong Funeral", although the Baptism in which one of the two Lady Godparents insisted on being registered as a GODFATHER ! -- certainly runs it close !

[jhopgood]

Almost Off Subject, but at the beginning of June this year, in the town hall of El Borge (Malaga), the first Civil Baptism took place in Spain. Two month old David Rando was officially named by the local mayor, and his name entered in the local registers. The "Godparents" had to sign confirming that they would ensure that David was brought up with the values of (loosely translated) equality, peace and solidarity.
There has been a lot of adverse comment on the curious nature of the ceremony, since he already had his name registered in the Civil Register, but this seems to have been an additional register so that the non church going parents could have the party which always goes with the baptism.

My grandson, born in the UK but now living in Sweden, was baptised in our local village church in Spain, by the RC priest. Apparently, in Sweden, the godparents are legally obliged to look after their godchildren if anything happens to both parents, nothing to do with religious education at all. Caused a bit of confusion as for logistical reasons, they chose one of my daughter-in-law's sisters as a godmother, (she lives in the same town in Sweden), but as she could not get to Spain, my wife was her stand. I think that the local priest still thinks that my RC wife is the official godmother and can't understand why the Swedish non RC godmother is on the form.
I try and blend into the background when these discussions go on.

[englishangel]

If you state you are Jedi, as a number of people did on the census form, would you come round to find Obi Won Kenobi or Yoda bending over you?

[englishangel]

If you state you are Jedi, as a number of people did on the census form, would you come round to find Obi Wan Kenobi or Yoda bending over you?

[Euterpe13]

rather like when ill-mannered people at parties ask me about my religion - I reply " agnostic pagan" ...by the time they have figured that one out, I'm long gone !

[Angela Woodford]

Those days of gynae stuff!

Every time I filled in the "LMP" date box I heard Miss Jukes say "Lemon Mewingue Pie".

[Spoonbill]

I was looking at the Prison Service website last year and they were advertising a vacancy for a pagan prison chaplain.

Difficult to imagine how you're meant to establish your credentials as a prospective pagan chaplain when chaplaincy in a prison is meant to be about pastoral care.

Also, I can't help thinking that most prison inmates who've ticked the Pagan box on their admission forms are probably just taking the piss. It's unlikely that any genuine, committed pagans (who tend to be very principled people) would end up in gaol anyway unless it was for an environmental protest of some kind. Sure, there'll always be a few nutjobs in prison who'll claim to be pagan, but only as a mental aberration. What a pagan chaplain would actually be expected to do when having a session with a nutjob or a pisstaker is hard to imagine.

I suspect that the inmates would imagine that a pagan chaplain would be a rock 'n' roll kinda person....and when they discovered that he (or she) was in fact a sober, spiritual, deeply principled human being, they'd just think he/she was an even bigger tw@t than the Christian and Muslim chaplains.

[sejintenej]

Just found this thread whilst looking at the Wicked One's posts.

I was confirmed at CH circe 1959 but as others have written no certificate or other evidence. Later on, in 1966, when I was going to marry an RC her church asked for evidence that I had been baptised. At that time we couldn't find my baptism certificate (my few belongings were scattered in various places) so I wrote to the chaplain at the chapel. He wrote back that unfortunately all the church records had been destroyed by enemy action but local workers remembered my being baptised in 1943; the Catholic Church accepted that as sufficient. I have since found the certificate which, being a rarity, is framed and in a safe place!

It is fortunate that possibly there is one baptism every couple of years or more in that particular chapel which is used only for estate workers (and the late owner) and the local workers do not move on to other jobs; even in 2001 I found one still working there whom I remembered from the 1940's.

I have never been asked for evidence of confirmation though I assume that the school has records.

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

My latest Grandson, Joshua, Roscoe Evans, has recently been "Named" at a Civil Ceremony.
It was very interesting, and followed much of the Christian Tradition.
His Mother and Father made promises about his care and upbringing, and his 21year old Brother and his Mother's Brother, stood as "Sponsors" (?Godparents )
The whole thing was tasteful, and I approved of their decision, since neither Parents are Christian, and thet thought a Baptism would be in-appropriate.

The Ceremony and Reception were held at Wroxall Abbey, in Warwickshire, which was the home of Sir Christopher Wren -- Very Impressive, ---- with that cost he will never be able to get into CH !!!!

Off Topic --- but a good Quiz question ----- Wren was born in a little village in Wiltshire -- East Knoyle, just North of Shaftsbury.