“Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles hands” Acts 8:18I didn’t see the point of confirmation at first. The wonderful life of following Jesus seemed complete without this ceremony. I knew the Holy Spirit, I shared in the body and blood of Christ regularly and I had already been baptised. When the opportunity arose to be confirmed I thought about it and prayed about it but I was still unsure. In the end I was resigned to the fact that with some aspects of Christianity you only see the purpose after the event. So I asked to be confirmed. The service took place at St Thomas the Apostle in Wigston on Tuesday the 8th 2010 and was more elaborate to what I was used to, being in the high church tradition. We reaffirmed the vows made on our behalf at baptism and then were prayed for by the Bishop. This was a highly individual prayer, where the bishop placed both his hands on your head as he prayed. This combined with the prayers and support of a small army of friends that had trooped down from St Pauls made the moment touchingly significant. Then I realised the point of confirmation. Those that follow Christ are called into the service of loving one another and helping each other grow in our relationship with God. This was the fulfilment of that calling and by being confirmed I was allowing the symbolic and very real sharing of the Holy Spirit. I wasn’t just entering into a family of the Church as a formality; I was being welcomed home and a party was being thrown on my behalf. It was a welcome, it was a sharing, and it was a confirmation that the Holy Spirit is active and sets to work as soon as we invite him into our lives. DR DAVID BOYCE
