Confirmation & Reception
Welcome, Thanks & Confirmation
Dear Friends,
First, please know–if you don’t already–how powerfully moving was my experience with you on the first Sunday in Advent and my first Sunday with you as your Interim Rector. The entire day was deep, wonderful, and absolutely appropriate for this new beginning. From gathering quietly with the spoken word of God surrounding us and leading us into the day, through the joy of seeing 55 families and children together learning a bit about Advent, and into the fullness of the Advent embrace at 10:30. That I managed to intone the Litany and walk that solemn walk with you almost (but not quite!) bowled me over.
To preach again at St. Martin’s brought me near to tears of joy and thanksgiving. To give thanks in Eucharist was absolutely an experience of the Body of Christ enfleshed in that holy sanctuary. In the background, the bustle and joy of wreath-making was a marker of how I hope we will move together into the future: engaged in mutuality, sharing, lifting up, creating, discarding, and most of all loving one another. So, thank you.
In the context of the liturgies, I encouraged any of you is a baptized Christian but who has not yet been confirmed in the Episcopal Church but would like to become an Episcopalian or who would like to be received into the Episcopal Church from one of the other bodies of Christ with whom we are connected or in communion (principally the Roman Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church (ECLA), and the Moravian Church) to be in touch with me soon. Several of you let me know you were interested as we spoke after church, and I did not get to speak with nearly all of you. Nor was I able to record your names.
So, using the form linked above, I joyfully invite you into this process. Confirmation and Reception are, in the Episcopal Church, done by a Bishop, and in our case, by our Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Daniel Gutierrez, who will be visiting us on the last Sunday of Advent, December 18. So we have only a little time to prepare. Therefore, please respond with alacrity! My plan is that we will meet two or three times together before the day itself.
In preparation for our first meeting, take a minute to review the order for “Confirmation, with forms for Reception and for the Reaffirmation of Baptismal Vows” which you can find here or on page 413 of our Book of Common Prayer.
I look forward to meeting with all you would be Episcopalians soon. I also look forward to meeting with all of you before too long, as and after I settle into the mutual ministry that is before us.
Thank you all for having me! Peace be.
Faithfully,
Jim
Tags: Worship
