Confirmation
After baptism, the next step towards understanding more about Christian faith is confirmation.
This can be at any time in your life once you have a desire to learn more and engage more deeply with the life of the church. Usually people are confirmed in their teens but in recent years people of all ages have been confirmed.
Confirmation is carried out as a combination of two things:
1) Reading and discussing key aspects of the faith of the Church of England with your priest, usually as part of a small group
2) Attending a service conducted by a Bishop who will ask you to state that you are prepared for this next step and then lay his hands on your head to complete reaching your status as a full member of the church, and allowing you to receive communion.
At St Mary’s we will work with you for a period of about eight to ten weeks (once a week) to go through the foundations of our belief, such as the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed. You may be asked to read one or two chapters from a helpful book and you will be taken through the confirmation service so that you understand what it means.
Recently most candidates have been confirmed at a wonderful and impressive service at St Paul’s Cathedral, but there are other smaller services held in the diocese at different times of the year, and last year we held a confirmation service at St Mary’s with the Bishop of Kensington.
If you would like to find out more about how to be confirmed please contact the Church Office.