Confirmation Vows (1928 BCP)
Confirmation Vows (1928 BCP) are the audible promises made in the Order of Confirmation in the 1928 American Book of Common Prayer. The rite does not invent a second baptismal covenant. It brings baptized persons who have been instructed to the bishop, where they publicly renew the baptismal promise and vow, profess personal loyalty to Jesus Christ, and receive prayer with the laying on of hands for strengthening by the Holy Ghost.
The 1928 form should therefore be read together with Holy Baptism, the Catechism, and the Offices of Instruction. Baptism gives the foundational promise and obligation; catechesis teaches the baptized what was promised; Confirmation makes that promise personally owned before God and the congregation.
Place in the Rite
The title of the office defines Confirmation as episcopal laying on of hands for baptized persons who have reached discretion. The opening rubric places the candidates before the bishop and congregation before any vow is made.
The Order of Confirmation
Or Laying on of Hands upon Those that are Baptized, and come to Years of Discretion.
Upon the day appointed, all that are to be confirmed shall stand in order before the Bishop, sitting in his chair near to the Holy Table, the People all standing until the Lord's Prayer; and the Minister shall say,
Reverend Father in God, I present unto you these persons to receive the Laying on of Hands.
The vows are thus not private resolutions detached from the Church. They are made within a visible ecclesial act: the baptized stand before the bishop, the people remain present, and the minister presents them for the laying on of hands. The phrase "Years of Discretion" also explains why the vows are tied to catechesis rather than bare age.
The office next gives its biblical warrant by appointing Acts 8. The appointed lesson distinguishes Baptism from the later apostolic prayer and laying on of hands, while keeping both within the one movement of Christian initiation.
When the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they 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.
For the 1928 Prayer Book, this Scripture is not ornamental. It supplies the pattern for the bishop's prayer that the confirmed may receive the strengthening gifts of the Holy Spirit. The vow is therefore surrounded by prayer for grace, not treated as moral self-sufficiency.
The Two Promises
The first vow renews the baptismal promise. Its wording requires public ratification, personal ownership, and acknowledgment of obligation.
Do ye here, in the presence of God, and of this congregation, renew the solemn promise and vow that ye made, or that was made in your name, at your Baptism; ratifying and confirming the same; and acknowledging yourselves bound to believe and to do all those things which ye then undertook, or your Sponsors then undertook for you?
And every one shall audibly answer, I do.
The answer "I do" therefore means more than willingness to receive a rite. It confirms the baptismal renunciations, the Creedal faith, and the promise to keep God's commandments. For those baptized as infants, it also makes personal what sponsors had undertaken in the child's name.
The 1928 American revision adds a second question after the renewal of the baptismal vow. This question explicitly names the personal Christian allegiance implicit in the older form.
Do ye promise to follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour?
And every one shall answer,
I do.
This added question prevents a narrow reading of Confirmation as only a legal ratification of childhood promises. The candidate renews the baptismal vow, but also confesses Jesus Christ personally as Lord and Saviour. The result is both ecclesial and evangelical: a baptized member stands in the Church and professes the Lord whom the Church worships.
Relation to Baptism and Catechism
The baptismal office already directs sponsors to bring the child to the bishop after sufficient instruction. Confirmation fulfills that baptismal direction rather than replacing Baptism.
Minister. Having now, in the name of this Child, made these promises, will ye also on your part take heed that he learn the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, and all other things which a Christian ought to know and believe, to his soul's health?
Answer. I will, by God's help.
Minister. Will ye take heed that this Child, so soon as sufficiently instructed, be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by him?
Answer. I will, God being my helper.
The Catechism identifies the substance of what is renewed: renunciation, belief, and obedience. It also teaches that the baptized person is personally bound to what was promised.
They did promise and vow three things in my name: First, that I should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh; Secondly, that I should believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith; And Thirdly, that I should keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of my life.
Dost thou not think that thou art bound to believe, and to do, as they have promised for thee?
Yes, verily; and by God's help so I will. And I heartily thank our heavenly Father, that he hath called me to this state of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And I pray unto God to give me his grace, that I may continue in the same unto my life's end.
This is the inner logic of the Confirmation vow. The candidate is not promising a new faith but owning the faith into which he was baptized. The repeated phrase "by God's help" is important: the vowed life of obedience is real, but it depends on divine grace from beginning to end.
The Offices of Instruction make the same link in teaching form. They describe Confirmation as a special means provided by the Church after the candidate has learned membership, Creed, duty, and sacramental doctrine.
What special means does the Church provide to help you to do all these things?
Answer. The Church provides the Laying on of Hands, or Confirmation, wherein, after renewing the promises and vows of my Baptism, and declaring my loyalty and devotion to Christ as my Master, I receive the strengthening gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The 1928 wording therefore gives a concise doctrinal interpretation of the vows. Renewal of Baptism and loyalty to Christ belong together, and both are ordered to the Spirit's strengthening gifts.
Prayer for Strengthening
After the promises, the bishop prays for the candidates before laying hands on them. The prayer assumes Baptism has already given regeneration and forgiveness, and asks for increase in the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Almighty and everliving God, who hast vouchsafed to regenerate these thy servants by Water and the Holy Ghost, and hast given unto them forgiveness of all their sins; 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. Amen.
The bishop's act then applies that prayer to each person. The individual formula is pastoral and eschatological: the confirmed person is defended by grace, continues as Christ's own, and grows in the Holy Spirit toward the everlasting kingdom.
Defend, O Lord, this thy Child 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. Amen.
The vows should be interpreted in light of these prayers. Confirmation is not a rite in which adolescents or converts simply pledge themselves more seriously. It is the Prayer Book's episcopal act of strengthening those who have been baptized and taught, so that the promised life may be lived by grace.
1928 Revision History
E. Clowes Chorley, writing shortly after the adoption of the 1928 book, identified the new Christological promise as one of the revision's explicit changes. He also noted that the new Offices of Instruction teach Confirmation within a broader account of the Church, sacraments, and ministry.
An entirely new Office of Instruction takes the place of the old Catechism which is now relegated to the end of the Prayer Book with the Articles of Religion. The new Office takes the form of a service with suitable prayers, versicles and responses. The catechizing is governed by sound pedagogical principles. The old Catechism, where retained, is modernized, and in addition instruction is given in the nature of the Church as "One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic"; the duties of membership therein; Confirmation; the Sacraments; and the three Orders in the Ministry. In the service of Confirmation the old preface is omitted, and this new question is asked by the bishop:
Do ye promise to follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour?
Chorley's note helps explain why the 1928 article topic is properly "Confirmation Vows" rather than only "Confirmation." The revision made the personal promise to follow Christ more explicit, while leaving the older renewal of baptismal obligation in place.
Anglican Interpretation
Michael Ferrebee Sadler's nineteenth-century catechetical manual is useful because it explains the pastoral meaning of the candidate's answer "I do." Sadler reads the vow as personal ratification of baptismal obligations, not as the creation of obligations that Baptism did not already contain.
What mean you by the words "I do"?
I mean that, "I do here, in the presence of God and of this congregation, renew the solemn promise and vow that was made in my name at my Baptism: I do ratify and confirm the same in my own person: I do acknowledge myself bound to believe and to do all those things which my godfathers and godmother then undertook for me."
Sadler then distinguishes the candidate's confirming from the bishop's confirming. This distinction is helpful for reading the 1928 rite because the same English word "confirm" can refer both to the person's ratification and to God's strengthening through the bishop's laying on of hands.
What is the Bishop's confirming?
It is strengthening -- God giving me strength by the Laying on of hands.
What is your confirming?
It is renewing in my own person my baptismal vows.
Edward Harold Browne gives the doctrinal boundary in his exposition of Article XXV. Confirmation is retained and valued, but it is not counted as one of the two sacraments of the Gospel in the same sense as Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
Now this definition does not exclude matrimony, confirmation, absolution, and orders, from being in some sense Sacraments; but it excludes them from being "such Sacraments as baptism and the Communion." No other ordinances but baptism and Communion have an express sign ordained by Christ Himself, and annexed thereto the promise of free forgiveness of sins, and of inward and spiritual grace given to us.
Browne also summarizes the historical relation of Confirmation to Baptism. His account supports the Prayer Book's pattern: the rite is historically connected to Baptism, but in Anglican use it is separated for edification and preparation.
Confirmation, in the primitive Church, followed immediately on baptism, and, as above noted, was made ordinarily a part of baptism. Tertullian and Cyril of Jerusalem both speak of the catechumens as first receiving baptism, and then immediately on their coming out of the water, receiving chrism and imposition of hands. The separation of confirmation from baptism arose, sometimes from the difficulty of obtaining the presence of a bishop, sometimes from the reconciling of heretics, who were confirmed but not rebaptized, and latterly from the deferring the confirmation of infants; it being thought good that, though baptized, they should delay their confirmation till they were trained and seasoned for serving as soldiers in the army of Christ.
Pastoral Reading
In teaching the 1928 rite, the vows should be explained clause by clause. "In the presence of God, and of this congregation" makes the act public and accountable. "Renew the solemn promise and vow" points backward to Baptism. "Ratifying and confirming the same" identifies the candidate's personal ownership. "Bound to believe and to do" joins doctrine and obedience. "Follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour" gives the vow its personal Christological center.
The candidate's vow is therefore serious, but it is not isolated. It is framed by Baptism, taught by the Catechism, witnessed by the congregation, administered by the bishop, followed by admission to Holy Communion, and sustained by prayer for the Holy Ghost. The 1928 Prayer Book presents Confirmation vows as baptized Christian discipleship made audible and personal in the Church.
See Also
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
- Baptism (1928 BCP)
- Baptismal Covenant in the 1928 BCP
- Baptismal Promises (1928 BCP)
- Catechism (1928 BCP)
- Confirmation (1928 BCP)
- Laying on of Hands in Confirmation (1928 BCP)
References
- ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, The Order of Confirmation, title and opening rubric, p. 296; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Order of Confirmation in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Quotation compared with local source
sources/justus1928/Confirmation.htm, lines 567-581; the resolving Justus URL uses the filenameConfirnation.htm. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, The Order of Confirmation, appointed lesson from Acts 8:14-17, p. 296; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Order of Confirmation in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Quotation compared with local source
sources/justus1928/Confirmation.htm, lines 586-593; line wrapping normalized. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, The Order of Confirmation, renewal of baptismal promise and vow, p. 296; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Order of Confirmation in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Quotation compared with local source
sources/justus1928/Confirmation.htm, lines 595-606; OCR hyphenation in "congregation" and "yourselves" corrected against the Prayer Book sense. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, The Order of Confirmation, added promise to follow Christ, p. 296; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Order of Confirmation in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Quotation compared with local source
sources/justus1928/Confirmation.htm, lines 608-615. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, The Ministration of Holy Baptism, sponsor promises after the baptismal interrogations, p. 277; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Ministration of Holy Baptism in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Quotation compared with local source
sources/justus1928/Baptism.htm, lines 245-256; HTML entities normalized. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, A Catechism, baptismal promises and personal obligation, p. 577; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Catechism in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Quotation compared with local source
sources/justus1928/Catechism.htm, lines 62-76; line wrapping and HTML entities normalized. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, Offices of Instruction, questions concerning the Church; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Offices of Instruction and Confirmation in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Quotation compared with local source
sources/justus1928/Confirmation.htm, lines 415-420. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, The Order of Confirmation, prayer before the laying on of hands, p. 296; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Order of Confirmation in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Quotation compared with local source
sources/justus1928/Confirmation.htm, lines 624-632; OCR hyphenation normalized. - ↑ Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, The Book of Common Prayer, Standard Book accepted in 1928, The Order of Confirmation, formula at the laying on of hands, p. 297; Society of Archbishop Justus transcription, The Order of Confirmation in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. Quotation compared with local source
sources/justus1928/Confirmation.htm, lines 638-645. - ↑ E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book: Its History and Contents (New York: Macmillan, 1929), ch. VII, "The New American Prayer Book"; Project Canterbury transcription, The New American Prayer Book, Chapter VII. Quotation compared with local source
tmp/revision-research/communion-frequency-rubric/chorley1929-07.txt, lines 530-548; line breaks normalized. - ↑ Michael Ferrebee Sadler, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction: Being the Church Catechism Expanded and Explained in Question and Answer, 3rd ed. (London: Bell & Daldy, 1872), "Confirmation," p. 342; Internet Archive scan and text, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction. Quotation compared with local OCR source
sources/churchteachersma00sadlrich_djvu.txt, lines 22589-22597; OCR artifacts, spacing, and line breaks corrected against context. - ↑ Michael Ferrebee Sadler, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction: Being the Church Catechism Expanded and Explained in Question and Answer, 3rd ed. (London: Bell & Daldy, 1872), "Confirmation," p. 345; Internet Archive scan and text, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction. Quotation compared with local OCR source
sources/churchteachersma00sadlrich_djvu.txt, lines 23007-23019; OCR artifacts, page-break noise, and line breaks normalized. - ↑ Edward Harold Browne, An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles: Historical and Doctrinal, edited with notes by John Williams (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1883), Article XXV, "Of the Sacraments," pp. 589-590; Internet Archive scan and text, An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles. Quotation compared with local OCR source
tmp/browne_expositionofthi00brow_djvu.txt, lines 40690-40726; OCR punctuation and spelling normalized. - ↑ Edward Harold Browne, An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles: Historical and Doctrinal, edited with notes by John Williams (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1883), Article XXV, "Of the Sacraments," pp. 590-591; Internet Archive scan and text, An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles. Quotation compared with local OCR source
tmp/browne_expositionofthi00brow_djvu.txt, lines 40749-40784; OCR line breaks and punctuation normalized.
External Links
- The Order of Confirmation in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
- The Ministration of Holy Baptism in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
- The Catechism in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer
- E. Clowes Chorley, The New American Prayer Book, Chapter VII
- Michael Ferrebee Sadler, The Church Teacher's Manual of Christian Instruction
- Edward Harold Browne, An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles