Thought for the week - 9 August 2026

It is our great happiness this week to invite the Bishop of Blackburn to come and Confirm our candidates in the faith of the Church. Confirmation is a sacrament conferred less frequently than Baptism. Indeed it may be seen that Baptism is the most ‘popular’ sacrament in terms of numbers, followed by Holy Communion, and then numbers tend to dip rather towards Confirmation and even further to Marriage and to an all time low for Ordination, picking up again for the Last Rites – thus it is that people so often call on the church at the beginning and end of life on earth and somewhat conveniently forget about it in the middle, only returning occasionally to complain when something changes or when ‘their’ church is closed – may it never be so for us!

Confirmation is often a time in our life when we make the full and conscious decision to follow Christ, and indeed to realise that He is with us. As Christ died on the cross, he called out ‘my God, my God, why have you forsaken me’ – and that has been seen in some quarters as an acknowledgement of His presumed abandonment by the Father – but if so, then why is He still talking to him? Even an anguished cry to Heaven is an acceptance of the will and power of God, and today we make not an anguished cry, but a joyful, full hearted one – My God, my God, I know that you will never forsake me’ and with that confession of faith, the Bishop then confers the sacrament of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the disciples who stand before us today. May they never leave the Church, and may the Church flourish because they are with us.

Cyprian of Carthage is one of the Church Fathers, and he said this about Confirmation;

“It is necessary for him that has been baptised also to be anointed, so that by his having received chrism, that is, the anointing, he can be the anointed of God and have in him the grace of Christ”

(Letters 7:2 [A.D. 253]).

“Some say in regard to those who were baptised in Samaria that when the apostles Peter and John came there only hands were imposed on them so that they might receive the Holy Spirit, and that they were not re-baptised. But we see, dearest brother, that this situation in no way pertains to the present case. Those in Samaria who had believed had believed in the true faith, and it was by the deacon Philip, whom those same apostles had sent there, that they had been baptised inside—in the Church. . . . Since, then, they had already received a legitimate and ecclesiastical baptism, it was not necessary to baptise them again. Rather, that only which was lacking was done by Peter and John. The prayer having been made over them and hands having been imposed upon them, the Holy Spirit was invoked and was poured out upon them. This is even now the practice among us, so that those who are baptised in the Church then are brought to the prelates of the Church; through our prayer and the imposition of hands, they receive the Holy Spirit and are perfected with the seal of the Lord”

(ibid., 73[72]:9).

So we see here that the ancient practice is continued in our church today. We also have candidates to present next year, on our centenary, so we give thanks to God that, today, He adds to our number and that His call has been audible over the noise and clamour of this world. May God bless our candidates and each one of us as we continue in our Christian Pilgrimage of faith, knowing that we are following Christ and that he walks with us.