Fifteen ninth-graders were confirmed on Sunday the 16th of May, by Bishop Neil Lebhar.
This group of youth confirmands awaited this occasion since December of last year when their originally scheduled confirmation had to be rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
These students completed their preparation for confirmation under the guidance of The Rev. Chris Jones, Associate Priest of St. Peter’s.
“Normally, they would have been confirmed immediately after completing the confirmation course, but these students, through no fault of their own, were forced to ruminate with all the knowledge from their confirmation for several months before their public and personal profession of the Faith actually happened,” said Jones.
“I actually am quite amazed at the growth of each student in the strange ‘between’ time.”
Typically, at the end of the confirmation course and right before the confirmation service, Fr. Chris and other confirmation leaders have a frank conversation with each student to hear their answers to questions such as: Who is Jesus? What is the Gospel? What does it all mean to you, personally?
Due to the delay of confirmation, Fr. Chris had these conversations more recently and said he was amazed by the growth of each students since the end of their class. “Their faith took a step forward since the end of the class—a lot of them have incorporated daily prayer and Bible study into their lives,” he says and continues “I think because of that, this confirmation service was significantly more meaningful to them than perhaps it would’ve been had it happened when it was ‘supposed to,’ but obviously it did happen exactly when God wanted!”
In a letter to the confirmands published in the Keys, Fr. Chris shared that he was as blessed, if not more, by the time shared together in this process as he hopes his leadership and presence was a blessing to them.
What a joyous occasion in the life of our church and in the lives of these young people, made even more significant, not in spite of, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
