Confirmation

Confirmation

Confirmation is a core milestone in our Episcopal tradition, the moment at which a young person publicly affirms their commitment to the promises their parents / sponsors made for them at their baptism. At St. Mark’s, confirmation follows a year of faith exploration.

What To Expect

Participate in worship by ushering, reading Scripture or prayers, or acolyting. To become an acolyte, lector or usher, please email Joyce Fletcher ([email protected]) or Fr. George ([email protected]). The expectation is that you will serve in one or more of these ways at least 7 – 10 times throughout the year.

Participate in 50% (or 7 out of 14) youth nights. This year, rather than hold a separate confirmation meeting after specific youth nights, confirmands will be expected to participate in our youth nights in order to explore their faith, express their doubts, and get to know others from our faith community. To foster this community, 8th graders will be grouped together during youth night small groups.

Find a mentor from the St. Mark’s community. This needs to be someone older than you, but can be anyone (other than a family member!) We encourage you to find your own mentor – perhaps someone your family knows or just someone you’ve seen around that you’d like to get to know better. If you don’t know who to ask, check with Father George or Joyce Fletcher for a list of people we think would make great mentors.

You need to have your mentor in place by Sunday, Oct. 23 at Noon, when we’ll be holding a special lunch for you and your mentor in Mahon Hall. After that, our expectation is that you connect two additional times before confirmation (either one-on-one or with another set of confirmands and their mentors) to talk about your faith (we’ll provide you with some questions to discuss) and pray together.

Attend an overnight retreat in Spring 2024. This will be a time for confirmands to have fun, get to know one another, explore the promises they’ll be asked to make at their confirmation, and make stoles for confirmation Sunday. We’ll get you the exact dates and location for this retreat as soon as they are available.

If your child is planning on being confirmed in the Spring 2024, please email Joyce Fletcher.