Confirmation. In the so-called sacrament of confirmation, the bishop lays his hands on the head of a person who has previously been baptized, for the purpose of conveying to him the Holy Spirit. But no apostle or minister in the apostolic church performed that [rite], and no man on earth has the Holy Spirit at his command. Roman theologians are uncertain as to the time when this so-called sacrament was instituted. The ritual leads those confirmed to think they have received the Holy Spirit, whereas all they have received is the word and ritual of fallible priests. Confirmation is also practiced by the Episcopal Church, but they regard it only as a church ordinance, not as an institution established by Christ.
Roman Catholicism - Lorraine Boettner
I have all my bona fides in the Episcopal Church (baptism, confirmation, marriage, etc.). I've got pieces of paper to prove it
. I recall the priest laying hands on me (and everyone else in the class) but not "conveying" the Holy Spirit to me. Instead, the rite of confirmation was taught as a (religious) rite of passage, I was previously a child and from the moment of Confirmation onward I would be considered an adult responsible for his own belief and practice of the faith and treated accordingly. Confirmation is a rite, and event, in which the commitment to Christ first alluded to in baptism is affirmed and confirmed by the participant. It is an organized and structured event, a rite, in which a profession of Christ as Lord and Savior is made. In that regard it may also be considered a conversion experience, even a liturgical alternative to the "altar call." Confirmation occurs only after a series of classes on the required beliefs of Christianity and doctrines of the Episcopal Church
(which are classic Reformed doctrines for the most part) are learned and the student interviewed by a minister
(the class may or may not be taught by the minister). It is at this ceremony the student receives his or her first Communion and remains seated throughout the worship service
(rather than heading off to children's Sunday school). In the Episcopal Church the priest (or minister) asks God to send the Holy Spirit specifically to
empower the young congregant to live the Christian life. He's not acting as an agent of regeneration by the HS
(unless the confirmation ceremony also happens to be a conversion experience, I suppose).
Personally, I think this a good thing. Many problems in western societies occur, in part, to the lack of rites of passage. People are not sure when they become an adult or how adulthood is defined. Boys become men and girls become women but ten people being asked to define what constitutes a "
man" are likely to give ten different answers, and no thought regarding modern inanity about gender is intended by that comment. Looking backwards, I can see how that rite was instrumental in my becoming a Christian a
decade later. Odd, huh? At age 13 I kneeled and made a profession of faith and a vow of commitment to follow him and the doctrine of the Episcopal Church. A dozen years later God rent the fabric of time and space and summoned me. While both events were radically different experiences, they are not unrelated.
When I became a counselor, I would always ask new clients about their faith. I'd respond to vague answers by noting their answer on the intake documents and the fact we were meeting in a Christian counseling practice. I cannot count the number of times I a client asked if he or she is a Christian would say, "Yes, I'm Episcopal," or "Yes, I'm Baptist," (or Methodist, Lutheran, etc.) as if the denominational affiliation automatically confers a place in Christ. Most could elaborate and describe a life of faith and activity consistent with scripture precedent, but many could not. That wasn't always limited to denominationalists, though (are you getting this @Buff Scott Jr.?). There are a lot of self-identified Christians who are either not Christians or who don't have much, if any, understanding what it means and what it looks like in practice to be a Christian. Confirmation could have been a good thing but, if they experienced such an event, it wasn't an effective thing.
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