A United
Methodist Understanding of Confirmation
The Christian life is a
dynamic process of change and growth,
marked at various points by celebrations
in rituals of the saving grace of
Christ. The Holy Spirit works in
the lives of persons prior to their
baptism, is at work in their baptism,
and continues to work in their lives
after their baptism. When persons
recognize and accept this activity of
the Holy Spirit, they respond with
renewed faith and commitment.
An infant who is baptized
cannot make a personal profession of
faith as a part of the sacrament.
Therefore, as the young person is
nurtured and matures so as to be able to
respond to God’s grace, conscious faith
and intentional commitment are
necessary. Such a person must come to
claim the faith of the Church proclaimed
in baptism as her or his own faith.
Deliberate preparation for
this event focuses on the young person’s
self understanding and appropriation of
Christian doctrines, spiritual
disciplines, and life of discipleship.
It is a special time for experiencing
divine grace and for consciously
embracing one’s Christian vocation as a
part of the priesthood of all believers.
Youth who were not baptized as infants
share in the same period of preparation
for profession of Christian faith. For
them, it is nurture for baptism, for
becoming members of the Church, and for
confirmation.
When persons who were
baptized as infants are ready to profess
their Christian faith, they participate
in the service which United Methodism
now calls Confirmation. It is the first
public affirmation of the grace of God
in one's baptism and the acknowledgment
of one's acceptance of that grace by
faith. The profession of Christian
faith, to be celebrated in the midst of
the worshiping congregation, includes
the voicing of baptismal vows as a
witness to faith and the opportunity to
give testimony to personal Christian
experience.
Confirmation is a dynamic
action of the Holy Spirit that can be
repeated. In confirmation the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit is invoked
to provide the one being confirmed with
the power to live in the faith that he
or she has professed. When a
baptized person has professed her or his
Christian faith and has been confirmed,
that person enters more fully into the
responsibilities and privileges of
membership in the Church.
