Confirmation

[MaryB]

Does Confirmation still involve the laying on of Hands, by the Bish.? Miss Watts, of Barnes, insisted that we all had a DOUBLE Hair Wash !

It certainly does. My elder son was confirmed at 15 in Southwark cathedral, having just discovered hair gel. I felt distinctly sorry for Bp Tom. He (son not Bp) also wore jeans and a denim jacket (this was some years ago), the only one of 30 or so candidates in the cathedral not in a suit or white party dress. At Hertford we were confirmed in Sunday uniform - grey dresses and tartan blouses in my ase, with a white veil pinned on with white hairlips. In 3s, these hairlips were kept and used year after year - Lil more or less grabbed them out of your hair as you left the chapel....

[MaryB]

Thank you for that, Mary. It sounds far more people-friendly than the ritual I went through, and far more in keeping with the current ethos of the church in general. However, I am not sure that I really see the need, then or now, for such a procedure - the very fact that it exists at all surely underlines that we have differences. As I said before, I feel that it is more important to celebrate our similarities - unity in diversity, rather than uniformity. What I said about different faiths, should apply equally to different denominations of Christianity - otherwise we are hardly doing a good PR job for belief in God.

Yes, I absolutely agree, and I would never insist anyone was formally received unless they themselves wanted to mark their membership of the CofE, and many people do feel the need for a rite of passage/initiation. For example, some people come to us with a sigh of relief having struggled with or suffered in other denominations, and since the liturgy also includes a reaffirmation of baptismal vows it can be a good way of marking a new or renewed commitment. In Southwark you often get a few people being received during a big deanery confirmation service that would also include baptisms - you can see how that would make sense, giving them a sense of being welcomed.

[Euterpe13]

In the days when I was a practising Christian, and felt the need or simple urge to go to a service, I simply entered the first House of God I came across, in whatever city or country I found myselft, without looking at the label over the door. I was never challenged as to my own "appartenance" and never felt out of place, whether at a CofE, RC, Methodist, Baptist or indeed Greek Orthodox church - although I confess that when I went to hear Miss Rutherford preach at the Ebenezer Strict Baptist Church, I did find it a bit tedious...

I feel strongly that sectarism is ridiculous and divisive, and if Jesus were really to return, he would be appalled!

[Fjgrogan]

Hear, hear!

[Spoonbill]

In the run-up to confirmation at CH we had to 'make our confession' (maybe this still goes on), which we could do either in person to the Chaplain or on our own in the Chapel at a time of day when nobody else was around. We were told to prepare for this by writing down as much confessionworthy stuff as we could think of in advance.

The Chaplain of my day told us an anecdote about a lad who, a few years earlier, had turned up to do an in-person confession to the Chaplain as arranged and pulled out his list of confessionworthy sins....only to discover that he was in fact holding a letter he'd written to his parents a day or two earlier. To his horror, he realised that he must have posted his list of sins to his parents....which indeed was what had happened.

All these years on, I still can't find it in myself to laugh at the story. Just too, too awful.

As for being a godparent, I would probably refuse if asked. This is because if a Christian family asked me to be a bona fide godparent, I couldn't in all conscience bring myself to inculcate the whole Christian belief-system into a kid when I don't hold with the entirity of it myself, only parts of it. And if a non-spiritual family asked me to be a godparent, I'd take the responsibility of developing the kid's spiritual side so very seriously that it'd probably freak out the parents altogether. What are non-spiritual people playing at anyway, appointing godparents? Or are godparents merely meant to be a source of Xmas and birthday presents?

[Fjgrogan]

On the subject of confession - my father was brought up by an Irish Catholic mother who took her religion very seriously; my father and uncle were both choirboys at Westminster Cathedral. However on one occasion when he went to confession as a child my father just told the priest that he was wicked. When asked by the priest what exactly he had done that was so wicked, he replied 'I don't know, but my Mum says I am wicked'!

[Angela Woodford]

Spoony, your confirmation story is just SUPERB!

One of the funniest CH stories ever.

(Note the use of penitential Lenten purple here)

Thanks so much!

[jhopgood]

I was confirmed at CH by the Bish of Chich, and I can't re-call a Confirmation Certificate either !

We must have been confirmed at about the same time. My recollection is of getting a small book, which I have just found, called "My Prayer Book - A - For Men and Boys" and inside is written my full name, with the text, Confirmed by the Bishop of Chichester on 10th March 1962

Then there are two Greek words, the last is probably Chisto, but the first seem to be UMETS. ΰμετς Χριτού?

Price of book 3/-


Any guesses?

I think I was confirmed in '62 also.

Didn't we have confirmation classes held by Rev Pullen in the HM's house ?

Jan seems to remember a small prayer book buried with my 'stuff'' in the loft, but I'm blowed if I can remember it !

(NO - I'm not going rooting around in the loft until the Christmas deccies have to come down again !)

Missed this earlier.

My visits to HM house were infrequent, the only ones I remember were for a chat on who destroyed bird's nests at Doctor's Lake (CMES thought I knew but it was news to me, so I was accused of protecting the perpetrators) and for a German Oral.
Have no recollection of Confirmation lessons, but think it was probably with Robson, as I did my confession with him. Can't remember ever speaking to "The Chain", although I must have as I was an altar boy for a while.
I have tried reaching into the increasingly inaccessible depths of my memory, to no avail. I will probably remember at the least opportune moment and forget when I try to record it.
One of the reasons why I am loathe to throw things away as at least I have a physical reminder, even if I can't remember why I need it.

[jhopgood]

Unconnected thoughts on this thread

I feel strongly that sectarism is ridiculous and divisive, and if Jesus were really to return, he would be appalled!

Agree entirely but my strongly RC wife merely accuses me of being anti RC.

In the Netherlands it was illegal to register your religion anywhere as that was the way the Germans identified the Jewish population in WWII

Also in the Netherlands, although maybe only Amsterdam, if you got enough children together to form a school based on a certain way of life, you were entitled to government funding. Hence the British School of Amsterdam was able to use the premises of a Dutch School, and educate the children along the lines of the British system.

[J.R.]

In my nursing days, it was part of the admission process to register a new patient's religion in the appropriate box.

It still is Angela.

In August, I'm going into the B.U.P.A. hospital in Ashtead, (On the NHS, I hasten to add), to have my otherhand 'done'.

I've just completed and returned their pre-admission forms - (FOUR PAGES).

You HAVE TO include your religion on it, so if I wake up and there's a C of E padre standing by my bed, I'll know I'm in trouble !

[Angela Woodford]

Why not admit you're a Pagan? It's nearly Midsummer!

[Fjgrogan]

Midsummer in Finland is a major holiday. I suspect that paganism is very close to the surface there, and yet they also have public holidays for church festivals that we have been quietly ignoring for years - like Ascension Day and Epiphany.

[englishangel]

In my nursing days, it was part of the admission process to register a new patient's religion in the appropriate box.

It still is Angela.

In August, I'm going into the B.U.P.A. hospital in Ashtead, (On the NHS, I hasten to add), to have my otherhand 'done'.

I've just completed and returned their pre-admission forms - (FOUR PAGES).

You HAVE TO include your religion on it, so if I wake up and there's a C of E padre standing by my bed, I'll know I'm in trouble !

No you don't, all you have to put is NONE, as on a census form. A person's religion (and politics) is their own business and no-one else's unless they choose to make it so.

[J.R.]

Apparently, BUPA suffer from a 'lack of humour' problem. They were not amused at........

To the question, 'Are you, or are you likely to become pregnant ?'....

I replied.... 'Highly Unlikely !!'

[Jo]

My dad once heard a young nurse ask a lady in her mid eighties "and what was the date of your last period?"