On Sunday 1st October, 17 young people and 10 adults chose to affirm their Christian faith in a wonderful confirmation service at St Peter’s. If you may not have been to confirmation service, it is the opportunity for those who were baptised when young, to affirm a Christian faith for themselves. At an infant’s baptism (sometimes called Christening) the parents and God parents ‘pencil in’ a commitment on behalf of their child, but at a confirmation, it is that moment for a person to make a personal decision for themselves – to be and live as a Christian following Jesus Christ. What was ‘pencilled in’ on their behalf, is by them ‘inked in’ to be permanent!
There were many highlights in the service, including a very full church, some wonderful worship, a good talk from the Bishop and refreshments afterwards, but the highlight was hearing some of the personal stories of how God works in different lives. The Christian message is the same, but all of our journeys are different and so it was very good to hear how God works with each of us as we are.
Simon Harrison (an electrical engineer) spoke of his many questions over the years, but after several conversations with Christian ‘scientist’ friends, he became convinced of the scientific evidence in the world around us. Stephen Tibble (a history teacher) spoke of how despite doing much research on his own, it was only when he turned to the bible to look for historical evidence that he found the answers he was looking for. Both Stephen and Simon did an Alpha course which they found very helpful too.
The stories of people are encouraging to hear to help us work out some of our own questions, and if you would like to hear some more stories in a bit more detail, please do read later in the magazine the stories of Karen and 3 young people from St Peter’s youth group: Ellie, Lydia and Anna.
Being confirmed is making a personal Chrisian commitment and starting the Christian journey, to live the best life for God, for others and yourself as possible. As Jesus said: ‘I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.’ John 10v10 You may not have been baptised or confirmed, but the most important thing is that we all take time to find out more about the meaning of life and big questions of life we all want to know answers too. If you might like to do this, you would be most welcome to join our forthcoming Alpha course starting on Wednesday 17th January 2018. For further details please do pick up a leaflet or look on our facebook page @StPetersBW or on our website www.stpetersbishopswaltham.org.uk
With my prayers for October
Revd James Hunt – Rector St Peter’s and Blessed Mary
Posted
23rd November 2017
Filed under
James' Blog