Confirmation/First Communion 

Confirmation is a special church service in which a person confirms the promises that were made when they were baptized.  If you were baptized at a christening when you were a child, your parents and godparents made these promises on your behalf.  As a young person or adult, you may be ready to affirm these promises for yourself and commit your life to following Jesus Christ.  At a confirmation service, you make these promises for yourself.  Your friends and family as well as the local Christian community will be there to promise to support and pray for you. 

The local bishop will lay their hands on your head and ask God’s Holy Spirit to give you the strength and commitment to live God’s way for the rest of your life.  If you have not previously taken communion (i.e. eaten the bread and drunk the wine as part of a Communion service) then your confirmation service would also be your first communion service.

If you have been baptized but now feel that you want to be confirmed, please speak to one of the clergy.  There is usually a series of confirmation classes held before the confirmation service, so that you can get a better understanding of the promises and what they mean.

In St Michael's we also admit children to communion, before they have been confirmed, but once they are old enough to understand something of the significance of sharing the bread and wine (usually around aged 7), again following a short course of instruction and explanation.  We do this to recognise that children are just as much part of the Church as adults, and it also helps to remind us as adults that we do not earn a right to communion and are never worthy to receive it, but it is given to us by God as pure gift.