Since the 1979 Book of Common Prayer’s emphasis on baptism as full inclusion in the church, confirmation has become a sacramental rite without any significant justification. Many bishops are reluctant to give it up, but most acknowledge that it is not clear what the liturgy actually does. While these issues relate to both adults and youth, this article focuses on youth and how the Journey to Adulthood program has and might continue to impact confirmation. The Journey to Adulthood program has greatly accelerated the move to an older confirmation age for youth (now generally sixteen years of age). A decade ago the common age of confirmation was between eleven and fourteen years of age. Journey to Adulthood was developed in response to the fact that, beginning in the mid-1960s, about 80% of our youth left the church within eight months after confirmation. Confirmation became graduation. And, to be honest, it largely functioned as a rite for parents more than for the youth. Most young people “got confirmed” to please mom and dad. The most concrete result that occurred was that parents felt good after the service. I’ve often felt that confirmation is the only sacramental rite performed on one person for the benefit of someone else!
Does Rite 13 replace or reform confirmation?
While some twelve-year-olds find confirmation meaningful, they tend to be the exception rather than the rule. The statistical fact that youth responded to confirmation by leaving active church life is significant. Part of the success of the Journey to Adulthood program is the rite of passage which occurs around age thirteen. This “Celebration of Manhood and Womanhood” (more commonly known as Rite 13) is a powerful liturgical rite. Most adults attending the service find themselves teary-eyed, wishing that the liturgy had been available for their child or even themselves at that age. Youth who have experienced a Rite-13 ceremony will gently (or not so gently!) correct you if you call them a child. They clearly understand that something real happened– they have passed from childhood to manhood or womanhood and experienced God’s blessing, their parent’s blessing and the blessing of the congregation in that passage. They have entered that liminal space between childhood and adulthood called adolescence.
I believe this liturgy is so powerful because it is, in fact, an outward and visible sign of something that really happens. Because it “rings true” for all participants, it has power. It meets the needs parents have when their youth reach that age–a need previously met by confirmation. But confirmation is not intended to be a rite of passage in this way, so it never functioned effectively either as a rite of passage or as an adult affirmation of faith. Because most youth at that age are not developmentally ready to make any adult commitment, they simply went through the motions.
Is sixteen too young for confirmation?
Sixteen is an age that has some adult associations in our culture. Most of us get our first driver’s license at that age, and that serves as a significant adulthood marker.
While sixteen thus has some justification as an appropriate age for confirmation, we have discovered that a number of J2A youth choose not to be confirmed at age sixteen. This is, in my opinion, a good sign. They understand the significance of what they are being asked to do, they are aware of their own spiritual development, and they have acquired the skills and strength to make their own decisions. It does, however, raise questions about the appropriate average age for confirmation and what, exactly, we think is happening in this sacramental rite.
If confirmation is an adult affirmation of faith, are most sixteen-year-olds ready to do that? If it is making a public, lifelong commitment to Christ, are sixteen-yearolds ready to do that? A comparable question to ask is: are most sixteen-year-olds are ready to make a public lifelong commitment to a marital partner? In some cases the answer may be “yes.” But in most cases we consider sixteen too young to make this kind of commitment. So, why do we assume that sixteen-year-olds are prepared to make a public adult commitment to Christ? Note, I am not talking about their ability to have a relationship with Christ–infants and children can do that. I’m talking about making a public adult affirmation and commitment.
Confirmation as part of a process
If we see Christian formation as a process, then confirmation could be the time when one understands where one is in one’s spiritual formation and is prepared to make a public “statement” about that. It would function much like the marriage service, which is not an event that creates a marriage, but rather a step in the process of a couple making a commitment to one another. The couple is saying: “We have built a marital relationship and we are now prepared to say that publicly and ask your blessing and God’s blessing on it as we continue to build that relationship.” In this context, confirmation would assume that the confirmand is self-aware, already functioning as an adult Christian and wishes to make a public affirmation of this.
If we followed the model of marriage, rather than baptism, we also could examine the role of the actors and the action in the sacrament. In baptism the priest or baptized lay person pours water on the baptismal candidate, an action which is the outward sign of God’s action. In marriage, the couple themselves act by saying the vows to one another. The priest and congregation witness the vows.
The current actors in confirmation are the bishop and candidate. The traditional view is that the sacramental action is the giving of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. But if baptism is complete, isn’t the Holy Spirit given then? If so, could we see the sacramental action in confirmation as witness–an affirmation of one’s faith and one’s relationship with Christ? The biblical basis for this could be Matthew 16:13-20 (“Who do people say that the Son of Man is? …And you, who do you say I am? …You are the Messiah. …You did not learn that from any human being, it was revealed to you by my heavenly Father. …on this rock I will build my church”). Confirmation, then, would be the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace of being given the power by God to witness to who Jesus is and to be the church–the Body of Christ.
There are several additional questions which arise: Does the bishop have to be the sole actor opposite the candidate? Is it possible to see the confirmand as the primary actor whereby the act of making a public affirmation in the midst of the congregation becomes the outward and visible sign of the spirit who groans within us? If so, then the bishop would join parents, sponsors and other members of the congregation in witnessing that affirmation and praying for God’s blessing on the candidate.
Confirmation as a rite of passage for youth?
We are considering refocusing the last two years of the Journey to Adulthood program to address these questions. The program currently invites youth to assess their own spiritual formation needs and design a process to meet those needs. It gives them models, ideas and plans to use in their work. We are thinking about having these two years focus on two primary issues:
- Who has God called me/formed me to be? What am I called to be/do? What are my spiritual gifts, my vocation, my ministry?
- What do I believe? What commitment am I prepared to make? How can I best make a public affirmation of what I believe and what I am committed to be and do?
Youth who have spent two years on understanding and building Christian community, followed by two years focusing on adulthood skills and a pilgrimage, would then spend two years focusing on vocation and ministry. Older youth are best engaged by doing ministry. They are asking the question: What will I be and do when I leave high school? Developmentally, they are settling into the beliefs and behaviors that they will have as adults. In a short time, they will go off and have to function in society as independent adults. Confirmation preparation would then be doing ministry, articulating what one believed and was committed to and developing an understanding of one’s vocation.
What if confirmation for youth became a rite of passage into adulthood and generally occurred at the end of high school? Yes, I know that isn’t what the sacramental rite is designed to do, but this might give life and power to the service– especially if the expectation was that the youth would design the liturgy. They would decide what their adult affirmation would be–a poem, a hymn, the sermon, a work of art, a dance, a play, a discussion. They would decide when and where it would occur. Perhaps it would not even be a single event but a longer celebration, including a blessing from the bishop in the cathedral on Wednesday night and a celebration with the congregation on Friday night. It could include youth receiving the blessing of their parents, sponsors, mentors or other significant members of the congregation in the midst of a liturgy they designed to celebrate their faith and God’s call to them.
This would shift the way we do the liturgy and how we understand confirmation for youth. I suspect it would unleash the same power we now see in the Rite-13 liturgy. We need a way for our youth to say:
This is who I am. This is what I believe. This is what I’m doing. This is where I’m going. This is where I feel God leading me.
We need a way to say to our youth: You are now an adult. You are now going out on your own. We give you our blessing. We give you our love. We give you the assurance that no matter where you go, God will be with you, God will love you and God will bless you. If we could find a way to make confirmation that kind of experience for our youth, I believe it would help them make the transition from adolescence to adulthood. And I believe it would be a powerful witness to the adults of every congregation who, in experiencing this liturgy, would be challenged to ask themselves those same questions.
I believe liturgies can have power. I think we need more ways to sacramentalize our lives. So instead of trying to eliminate confirmation or continuing to live with an ineffectual liturgy, can we find a way for it to function with real power and meaning? I welcome your suggestions, thoughts and challenges. Write or e-mail: Linda@LeaderResources.org; LeaderResources, Box 302, Leeds, MA 01053; or call 413-582-1860.