Confirmation

Confirmation is the rite of the Church in which a person baptized in infancy, having come to years of discretion, publicly ratifies and confirms the promises made in his name at his Baptism, and receives strengthening by the Holy Ghost through the laying on of hands by a bishop. In the classical Anglican understanding Confirmation completes the outward order of Christian initiation: Holy Baptism grafts the child into Christ's Church; Confirmation seals his personal confession of the faith into which he was baptized; and so prepared, he is admitted to the Holy Communion. The Book of Common Prayer provides the rite as "The Order of Confirmation, or Laying on of Hands upon those that are baptized and come to years of discretion," and the Thirty-nine Articles treat of it in Article XXV.

Scriptural basis

The Church finds the pattern of Confirmation in the ministry of the Apostles after the day of Pentecost. When Philip preached Christ in Samaria and baptized many, the Apostles at Jerusalem "sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: (for as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost" (Acts 8:14–17). Again at Ephesus, when certain disciples who had received only John's baptism were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, "when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them" (Acts 19:6).

The Epistle to the Hebrews lists "the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment" among the first principles of the doctrine of Christ (Heb. 6:1–2). The language of sealing is also associated with the rite: St. Paul writes that God "hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (2 Cor. 1:22), and that believers, "after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1:13).

Classical Anglican divines drew from these passages a double conclusion. First, the gift of the Spirit imparted through the Apostles' hands is a distinct act of grace completing what baptism began. Second, because in both apostolic instances it was the Apostles, and not the evangelist who had baptized, who laid on hands, the rite belongs to the episcopal office as the successor of the Apostles. Hence, throughout the Anglican tradition, Confirmation is reserved to the bishop.

The early and medieval Church

The imposition of hands after baptism is attested in the earliest centuries. Tertullian, writing around the year 200, describes the order of Christian initiation: after coming up from the font the new Christian is anointed, and then "the hand is laid on, invoking and inviting the Holy Spirit" (De Baptismo, chs. 7–8). Cyprian of Carthage appealed directly to the Samaritan narrative of Acts 8, arguing that those baptized must afterwards receive the Holy Spirit "through the prayer and the imposition of hands" of the bishop (Epistle 73).

As infant baptism became the norm and bishops could no longer be present at every baptism, in the West the bishop's part of the rite — the laying on of hands with anointing by chrism — came to be deferred to a later visitation. It was this deferral that gradually turned Confirmation into a separate and later rite from Baptism. In the East, by contrast, chrismation remained joined to baptism, and is administered by the priest with chrism consecrated by the bishop, even to infants.

In the scholastic period Confirmation was numbered among the seven sacraments: Peter Lombard treated it in the Sentences, and the Council of Florence, in its Decree for the Armenians (1439), named chrism as its matter and reserved its ordinary minister to the bishop, speaking of an indelible character impressed upon the soul. Medieval canon law generally set the age of reason, about seven years, as the earliest age at which the rite might be received.

The English Reformation

The English reformers kept Confirmation but stripped away its medieval accretions. In Thomas Cranmer's first Book of Common Prayer (1549) the Catechism was printed together with the Order of Confirmation, binding instruction in the faith to the rite itself. The 1549 rite retained the laying on of hands and the signing of the candidate with the cross, but dropped the anointing with chrism. The 1552 book removed the signing as well, leaving the simple and solemn laying on of the bishop's hand with prayer: "Defend, O Lord, this thy Child [or this thy Servant] with thy heavenly grace, that he may continue thine for ever; and daily increase in thy Holy Spirit, more and more, until he come unto thy everlasting kingdom."

The 1662 rite, which remains the classical Anglican form, is entitled "The Order of Confirmation, or Laying on of Hands upon those that are baptized and come to years of discretion." Its preface declares the purpose of the rite: that children, "being now come to the years of discretion, and having learned what their Godfathers and Godmothers promised for them in Baptism, they may themselves, with their own mouth and consent, openly before the Church, ratify and confirm the same." The bishop then asks:

Do ye here, in the presence of God, and of this Congregation, renew the solemn promise and vow that was made in your name at your Baptism; ratifying and confirming the same in your own persons, and acknowledging yourselves bound to believe and to do all those things, which your Godfathers and Godmothers then undertook for you?

Each candidate answers audibly, "I do." The bishop prays for the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit, after Isaiah 11:2: "Strengthen them, we beseech thee, O Lord, with the Holy Ghost the Comforter, and daily increase in them thy manifold gifts of grace; the spirit of wisdom and understanding; the spirit of counsel and ghostly strength; the spirit of knowledge and true godliness; and fill them, O Lord, with the spirit of thy holy fear, now and for ever." Then, "all of them in order kneeling before the Bishop, he shall lay his hand upon the head of every one severally," saying the "Defend, O Lord" prayer. A closing collect describes what has been done as laying on hands "after the example of thy holy Apostles," "to certify them (by this sign) of thy favour and gracious goodness towards them." The rite ends with the rubric: "And there shall none be admitted to the holy Communion, until such time as he be confirmed, or be ready and desirous to be confirmed."

Article XXV

The Thirty-nine Articles address Confirmation in Article XXV, "Of the Sacraments":

Those five commonly called Sacraments, that is to say, Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and extreme Unction, are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel, being such as have grown partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles, partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures; but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, for that they have not any visible sign or ceremony ordained of God.

The Article thus applies a narrow test for a "Sacrament of the Gospel": institution by Christ in the Gospel with a visible sign or ceremony ordained of God. Confirmation, lacking a dominical institution of that kind, is not numbered with Baptism and the Lord's Supper. But the Article does not condemn the practice: it is an apostolic ordinance with scriptural warrant in the Acts of the Apostles, retained and reverently used by the Church of England.

Richard Hooker, in Book V of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, defended Confirmation as an apostolic practice profitably retained, answering those who would abolish it because the Articles deny it the name of sacrament. Anglican divines have commonly called it a sacramental rite — a means of grace appointed by the Church after the apostolic example — while guarding two truths: it is not a second baptism, as though baptism were incomplete without it, and it adds nothing to the sufficiency of baptismal grace, which Article XXVII itself describes as that whereby "Faith is confirmed, and Grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God."

The Catechism

The Prayer Book Catechism is the Church's instrument of preparation for Confirmation. The 1662 preface to the rite requires that "none hereafter shall be confirmed, but such as can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments; and can also answer to such other Questions, as in the short Catechism are contained." The child learns from the Catechism that in Baptism he was made "a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven," and rehearses the threefold promise made for him — to renounce the devil and all his works, to believe all the articles of the Christian faith, and to keep God's holy will and commandments — until he is able to answer for himself. The second half of the Catechism, treating of the sacraments, was added in 1604, completing the course of instruction expected of every confirmand.

Modern practice

The minister of Confirmation throughout the Anglican Communion is the bishop — normally the diocesan, or a suffragan or assistant bishop acting in his name — and confirmations are commonly held for grouped parishes at the bishop's visitation. Candidates kneel before the bishop, who lays his hand upon the head of each with the "Defend, O Lord" prayer.

The age of Confirmation varies with province and diocese. The medieval norm of the age of reason gave way in most places to confirmation in early to mid adolescence, following a course of preparation; some dioceses confirm younger children, and adults baptized in adult life are often baptized and confirmed at the same liturgy. In keeping with the 1662 rubric, Confirmation has traditionally been the normal gateway to communicant membership, though practice now varies.

The 1662 rite uses no oil, but in some parts of the Anglican tradition the bishop signs the candidate with chrism at the laying on of hands. Christians baptized in other traditions who seek to enter the Anglican Church are commonly received by the bishop with prayer and the laying on of hands, rather than re-confirmed, where their previous confirmation (or chrismation, in the Eastern Churches) is recognized as valid.

Confirmation preparation

Preparation for Confirmation has always meant catechizing: learning the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and being instructed in the faith, the sacraments, and the Christian life, usually over a course of weeks under the parish clergy. A widely used modern course is An Outline of an Anglican Life by the Rev. Louis R. Tarsitano (Classical Anglican Press, 1994), which began as a series of questions and answers for Confirmation and inquirers' classes. In ten lessons — on the Church, the doctrine of God, sin, salvation and grace, the dominical sacraments, the other sacraments, Holy Scripture, the Book of Common Prayer, the polity of the Church, moral theology, and a church miscellany — with appendices including a final examination, it surveys the faith and practice of the Anglican Church as the confirmand is expected to learn it.

See also

• An Outline of an Anglican Life (Tarsitano, 1994)
• Bishop
• Book of Common Prayer
• English Reformation
• Thirty-nine Articles
• Thomas Cranmer
• Catechesis in Anglican Classical Education

References

• The Book of Common Prayer (1662), "The Order of Confirmation, or Laying on of Hands upon those that are baptized and come to years of discretion."
• The Book of Common Prayer (1662), "The Articles of Religion," Article XXV, "Of the Sacraments."
• The Book of Common Prayer (1662), "A Catechism."
• The Holy Bible (Authorised Version): Acts 8:14–17; 19:1–7; Hebrews 6:1–2; 2 Corinthians 1:21–22; Ephesians 1:13.
• Tertullian, De Baptismo, chs. 7–8.
• Cyprian of Carthage, Epistle 73.

Further reading

• E. Harold Browne, An Exposition of the Thirty-nine Articles, Historical and Doctrinal (1850–53), on Article XXV.
• A. J. Mason, The Relation of Confirmation to Baptism, as Taught in Holy Scripture and the Fathers (1891).
• G. W. H. Lampe, The Seal of the Spirit: A Study in the Doctrine of Baptism and Confirmation in the New Testament and the Fathers (1951).