Confirmation

[Wicked Uncle Jasper]

Now look here.

I've just been asked to produce my anglican confirmation certificate because I'm converting to RC, but I can say with total certainty that I was never issued with such a thing at CH Horsham. In fact I'd never even heard of such a thing until now. All I was given at the time was a prayer book signed by the bishop of Chichester.

There's such a thing as a baptismal certificate so I suppose there must in fact be such a thing as a confirmation certificate, which means that the CH chaplains and/or the diocese had them at their disposal but simply didn't bother with them. Why the hell would that be?

I don't recall that any of my co-confirmees in the very late 1980s was given a certificate. Was any of you lot given one at CH Horsham? I feel like I've had my passport revoked or like I'm trying fraudulently to pass myself off to the Catholic church as something I'm not.

[Mid A 15]

Now look here.

I've just been asked to produce my anglican confirmation certificate because I'm converting to RC, but I can say with total certainty that I was never issued with such a thing at CH Horsham. In fact I'd never even heard of such a thing until now. All I was given at the time was a prayer book signed by the bishop of Chichester.

There's such a thing as a baptismal certificate so I suppose there must in fact be such a thing as a confirmation certificate, which means that the CH chaplains and/or the diocese had them at their disposal but simply didn't bother with them. Why the hell would that be?

I don't recall that any of my co-confirmees in the very late 1970s was given a certificate. Was any of you lot given one at CH Horsham? I feel like I've had my passport revoked or like I'm trying fraudulently to pass myself off to the Catholic church as something I'm not.

I was confirmed pre CH into the Cof E so cannot answer your question re confirmation certificates.

However what I CAN tell you is that when I also converted to RC the only "paperwork" I had to produce was a baptism certificate.

After attending a course of instruction I received my first (RC) communuion and was also confirmed into the RC Church one Maundy Thursday. In other words my Cof E confirmation was effectively irrelevant.

My suggestion is speak to your priest.

[NEILL THE NOTORIOUS]

Angican Family --- Daddy Churchwarden --- Confirmed CH in the 40s ---

Never heard of such a thing as a "Confirmation Certificate" -- certainly not at CH !

[J.R.]

I was confirmed at CH by the Bish of Chich, and I can't re-call a Confirmation Certificate either !

[Fjgrogan]

I did it the opposite way round - I was confirmed an RC and later reverted to the Church of England, in which I had basically been raised anyway. The C of E were apparently quite happy to accept my word that I had been confirmed by the Catholics, without ever asking for any kind of documentary proof, so I am not sure that the RC church issues such things as Confirmation Certificates, and I have certainly never heard of them in the Anglican church either. When my daughter was about to be confirmed at Hertford, I thought it would be a good idea if I could join her for her first Communion - I had received communion as an RC, but not for some time, and was not familiar with 'how it worked' in the Anglican church, so I spoke to the local vicar, who suggested that I might like to sit in on confirmation classes that he was about to conduct, although he realised that I did not need to be re-confirmed. I agreed to do so, and subsequently my first Anglican communion took place with my daughter in the CH chapel at Hertford. However, before the vicar would give me communion in the local church here he made me go through a ceremony formally repudiating any allegiance that I might still feel to the church of Rome! At the time I thought it was just a whim of his, but later when I was working as parish administrator I discovered some cards with the words of that ceremony, so presumably it did have some official standing. I wish I had thought to keep one of the cards, which have since disappeared. I have never heard of such a ceremony before or since; in retrospect, and in the light of more recent moves towards church unity, I am horrified. The vicar in question moved away from here 20 years ago and has since died. These days I feel comfortable attending either kind of church and receiving communion, with the permission of both RC and C of E clergy - mind you I am not sure that I have ever told the RC priest that I once publicly repudiated his church!

[jhopgood]

I was confirmed at CH by the Bish of Chich, and I can't re-call a Confirmation Certificate either !

We must have been confirmed at about the same time. My recollection is of getting a small book, which I have just found, called "My Prayer Book - A - For Men and Boys" and inside is written my full name, with the text, Confirmed by the Bishop of Chichester on 10th March 1962

Then there are two Greek words, the last is probably Chisto, but the first seem to be UMETS.

Price of book 3/-


Any guesses?

[midget]

I was not asked for a Confirmation certificate when I converted to RC. The main stumbling block was Baptism-after some discussion my Methodist baptism was accepted at CH for confirmation, but when I became a catholic, I was given a "conditional" baptism.

[michael scuffil]

I find this a little odd, because you must need proof of confirmation for various things, e.g. ordination. On the other hand, I can't see why the RC should care whether you've been confirmed or not. They wouldn't recognize it anyway, as they don't recognize the validity of Anglican orders, incl. those of the bishop who confirmed you. They care whether you've been baptized, because baptism is ecumenical, and doesn't (even among the RC) require a priest to carry it out.

[Fjgrogan]

Slightly off topic, but ........... a few years ago I trained as a Reader in Southwark Diocese. During the weekend retreat before we were admitted and licensed, it was discovered that one of the group had somehow been confirmed but never baptised (no idea how that happened!).The Warden of Readers therefore decided that he would baptise the said candidate during Sunday Eucharist, and we all stood in as his Godparents. So somewhere in the world I have a middle-aged very black Godson called Ebenezer - sadly I have no idea where he is now.

[englishangel]

In the way of the world, I bet someone on here has come across him.

My money is on Katharine.

[Katharine]

In the way of the world, I bet someone on here has come across him.

My money is on Katharine.

Sorry Mary, at the moment can't quite bring him to mind! There may be a couple of possibilities, but I don't know their names. The only Ebenezer I knew was usually called Stan as he had chosen his Christian names as Stanislaus Clement Ebenezer (I kid you not!)

[YadaYada]

I was confirmed but certainly have no paperwork to prove it.....I was 13 and my mother never passed anything on to me.

My son has been brought up CofE although he was baptised by the RC hospital chaplain the night of his birth....incidentally, just minutes before being given the last rites.

Clearly he survived the whole ordeal as he is due to enter CH this September but he also has no paperwork to confirm (no pun intended) that he has been baptised at all.

[Angela Woodford]

Many many years ago, I considered converting to the RC church - I'd come to know a wonderful little nun, and I was really thinking about it.

However, it turned out that, because I was a remarried divorcée, I would have to have my first marriage annulled. The priests behaved as if I were in an unspeakably bad and dubious position. An annullment would have meant tracking down my first husband (no! no! please not!) and paying out a possibly considerable amount of money. Nobody, however would tell me how much money it would be. The priests coughed, hummed and ha'ad, tried to dodge the question and talked about how the administration/documentation was bound to be expensive.

Oh dear.

"Stanislaus Clement Ebenezer (I kid you not!)"

This is superb, Katharine!

[Euterpe13]

All of the above underlines my conviction that Churches have nothing to do with Christianity - which is why I now shun all organised religion, whatever the label. Convert to/from RC or CofE? One converts from one religion to another, inside a religion one may adhere to one or another Church, but there is only one Christ and only one Christianity - and the constant playing of "my Church is better than your Church" over the centuries has done nothing but generate misery and hate, and make Christianity a derisive object in the eyes of other religions.

( I will now get down from my soapbox )

[Fjgrogan]

Euterpe, much of what you say is unfortunately true! However, things are better these days than they used to be, thanks in part to the 'Churches Together' movement. I would much prefer to describe myself as a Christian than as belonging rigidly to any particular denomination, but I do need a homebase. I can and do regularly worship at various different types of church, and a number of our local clergy actively encourage their parishioners to 'sample' different churches - even the RCs. We also have all manner of ecumenical social events, particularly during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January and a big joint service in the local recreation centre once a year. Also various ecumenical community projects, such as Street Pastors and Kingston Churches Action on Homelessness, which is hoping to build a night shelter before next winter. Unfortunately there are still many places where this kind of togetherness is not encouraged - I recently had a 'run-in' with an old-style RC priest who seemed to be totally unaware of the advances made by his own church since Vatican II (40 years ago!)and was trying to impose on me restrictions which have long since ceased to be practised by most RC churches; as a result I felt unable to attend my uncle's funeral, where I had been hoping to read a lesson. That kind of situation is unacceptable, not to mention un-Christian, and gives 'outsiders' a totally false impression of Christianity as a whole. Since for many people their only contact with the church is to 'hatch, match or despatch' loved-ones these are the times when we should be most sensitive to the feelings of others. As far as I am concerned Christianity should be about pastoral care, not about ethics and dogma. I do not particularly wish to force my views on non-believers, but I do feel that for anyone who professes to believe in Christ, that belief should be manifest in the way that they live their life, not just by going to church for an hour of so on Sunday morning. And I have said many, many times (including in sermons) that God doesn't mind how we worship as long as we do - that includes the fact that it is not always essential to be in church to have an active and ongoing relationship with God.

As regards relationships with other faiths - I lived for a few years in Leicester, which is very much a multi-cultural city. I was never aware of any particular strife between Hindus, Moslems, Sikhs, Christians, Jews or Buddhists. In a number of places there were joint ventures between, for example, church and mosque. If we could just all concentrate on what we have in common, rather than magnifying the differences, the world would be a better place. For example, Jews, Christians and Moslems all claim to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - you would hardly think it to see the way that some fundamentalists - including Christian fundamentalists - choose to put that belief into action.

Rant over! What a way to start a Monday morning!