The Sacrament of Confirmation
Strengthen. Empower. Sustain.
Confirmation is the sacrament in which we express a mature commitment to Christ and receive strength from the Holy Spirit through prayer and the laying on of hands by a bishop. To be confirmed, you must first be baptized. To prepare, confirmands must be sufficiently instructed in the Christian faith and ready to affirm their confession of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. This preparation is often guided by the parish priest, who provides the necessary instructions and support. Confirmation is administered during the bishop’s visitation to the parish. If you have not yet been confirmed, please speak to the parish priest to make the necessary preparations.
Confirmation is more than just an opportunity to make a mature profession of baptismal faith. By receiving the bishop’s laying-on-of-hands, candidates are brought into an explicit relationship with the Church in all times and places, which the bishop represents. Most importantly, confirmation strengthens the gifts of the Holy Spirit given in baptism. The Latin root of confirmation means to “strengthen” or “firm up.”
The ideal age for confirmation is usually between late childhood and early adolescence, around twelve to sixteen. When it's done at a younger age, confirmation helps spiritually prepare youth to face the challenges of the teenage years, but it can be done at any age. The sacrament is non-repeatable and can only be administered once.
Historical Background
In the early Church, the process of Christian Initiation comprised several distinct ritual actions: baptism with water, an anointing with oil (known as chrism), a laying-on-of-hands by the bishop, and first Holy Communion. In an era when most converts to the faith were adults, these four actions would likely all occur in the same service, usually the Great Vigil in the night hours of Easter Eve.
In subsequent centuries, infant baptism became the norm, and these four actions became separated. In the Western Church, baptism and the anointing with chrism were administered to infants a few days old; first Communion and the bishop’s laying-on-of-hands (Confirmation) were postponed to later years in the candidate’s life.
Meanwhile, in the Christian East, the anointing with oil blessed by the bishop (Chrismation) came to substitute for the bishop’s laying-on-of-hands and continued to be administered at the time of baptism, along with first Communion (given to infants in a tiny spoon).
For centuries, the standard Anglican practice was to make confirmation the rite of admission to Holy Communion, administered in late childhood or early adolescence. Since the 1970s, however, the Episcopal Church has encouraged the “early Communion” of children, following the Eastern Orthodox example, and has emphasized confirmation as the rite in which young adults make a mature profession of the Christian faith, taking upon themselves the promises made at baptism by their parents and sponsors.
Transferring In
Those baptized as adults should be confirmed as soon as possible after their baptism; in some cases it may be possible to administer both baptism and confirmation in the same service. Adults transferring into the Episcopal Church from other Christian denominations should also receive confirmation, unless already confirmed by a bishop in the apostolic succession (or chrismated in the Eastern Orthodox Church).