I trust that you are keeping well! I have come down with a cold this week and I’m still recovering from it. God willing I shall be well enough to take part in this weekend’s activities in our church. This Saturday there is a men’s breakfast fellowship in the church hall, and on Sunday we have a special combined service to mark and celebrate the 115th birthday of our church and to celebrate the confirmation to faith in Christ of eight members of our church.
But what is Confirmation? Some of you might ask. Here’s a helpful definition which comes from the website anglicancompass.com:
“At its most basic, Confirmation refers to the rite in which, after a believer has been baptised, they make a mature commitment to the faith and receive increased gifting of the Holy Spirit through the bishop’s prayer and laying on of hands.”
The “increased gifting of the Holy Spirit” sounds a bit vague, and so to clarify, the author of the article says this, citing an Anglican catechism: “What grace does God give you in Confirmation?” Answer: “In Confirmation, God strengthens the work of the Holy Spirit in me for His daily increase in my Christian life and ministry.”
That’s helpful. So Confirmation does two things. First, it “is a sacrament of maturity, representing a deepening or strengthening of the Christian life.” It is also “a sacrament of mission.” Confirmation “marks” a person for undertaking the vocation to which every Christian is called, the vocation of proclaiming the gospel and living a holy life.
We give thanks to the Lord for the candidates who have successfully completed the Confirmation Preparation Course, and I ask you to uphold them in your prayers as they undergo Confirmation this Sunday: Megan Berlin, Joshua Gwynne, May Jariel, Yoshua Judanto, Jenny Spall, Nadia Uys, Rochell Uys and Erina Vosser.
We look forward to welcoming Bishop Steve and Watiri this Sunday, as well as some friends and family of the Confirmation Candidates.
Looking back, we are grateful for the success of our first congregational meeting on 28th July for the evaluation of the Discipleship, Pastoral Care and Children’s Ministries of our church. Thank you to all who came along and shared their thoughts and ideas. In the week that followed, small groups of evaluation teams had further meetings to collate the ideas that were generated on the 28th (I’m glad to have now seen the preliminary notes!). So that was a good start. Our next congregational meeting is scheduled for Sunday 18th August during the morning between the services. I hope you will attend the meeting and “add your ideas to the mix.”
I knew there was a problem of noise at the 28th July meeting, which made it difficult for some people to hear what was being discussed at the breakout sessions. I have discussed this with the wardens and we will make sure the problem doesn’t recur at our future meetings.