On October 10th Bishop Gutierrez will be coming to St Peter’s for his episcopal visitation with us. On that day it is appropriate to offer the sacrament of Confirmation and Reception. Confirmation may be the least understood of the seven sacraments we claim in our tradition, mainly because its use and meaning has evolved over time, and Christians (especially Episcopalians) do not do well with changes in the Church. I won’t go into all the different ways to think about Confirmation here, but I do want to let you know that we are offering “Confirmation Classes” in preparation for the Bishop’s visitation. I have “classes” in quotation marks because this particular course of preparation may not be what we traditionally think of as a “class.” It won’t be about memorizing the Catechism or stuffing our heads with data, dates, facts, and information. There will be some of that, of course, but the primary function of the course is different.
