The following note was included in the bulletin for the service of Confirmation held this morning at Christ Church.
We welcome the Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese to Christ Church for this service of Confirmation. While Bishop Sue Moxley has been to the parish several times over the past years, this is the first official visit of Bishop Ron Cutler to the Parish. Welcome!
I have sometimes been asked: what do we need Bishops for? The short answer is Confirmation. Ordination and Confirmation are the two specifically spiritual functions of bishops. The term “suffragan” is more about the administrative side of the episcopate. A suffragan bishop is an assistant bishop but without right of succession to being the Diocesan Bishop. So what is confirmation?
It is the laying on of hands with prayer upon those who are baptized and who have reached a certain level of maturity. The candidates for confirmation are old enough to be able to understand for themselves the basic principles of the Christian Faith and to take responsibility for themselves with respect to spiritual life. They are able, for instance, to appreciate what a Sacrament is and to know that it is not ordinary bread and wine. It is the body and blood of Christ.
The older pattern in our Parishes, in a less mobile age, was for children to be baptized as infants, confirmed as young ‘teenagers’, and admitted to Communion. Confirmation, however, is not a meal ticket to Communion. It is a service which has an integrity in itself. It is about these young people seeking God’s strengthening grace, conveyed through the Office of the Bishop, to walk with Christ in the journey of faith.
In God’s good Providence, there are some additional special features to today’s event. Lorry Anne Kelley, the mother of the three Kelley boys, was prepared for confirmation by Bishop Ron Cutler when he was a parish priest in Lower Sackville! Hey! It’s the Maritimes! Go figure!
All those who are baptized in the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost and are of an age and are desirous of receiving the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ are most cordially invited to do so.