So, there are two lines of thought I’ll be following in the next few months, and both have practical sides.
- What is the purpose and meaning of confirmation?
- On what basis would a newly constituted Universalist Christian church be founded?
Ideas?
Personal and cultural reflections, plus the District of Columbia and some Esperanto
So, there are two lines of thought I’ll be following in the next few months, and both have practical sides.
Ideas?
Confirmation seems to me an adult process that people have come to expect of adolescents. The process makes the most sense to me as a recommitment or personal embrace of one’s baptismal covenant. My ideal confirmation class would be something like “Meeting Jesus again for the first time.” The model strikes me as developmentally inappropriate for young teens.
I’ll be interested to see what you come up with Scott and I urge your exploration. All we have now is a sort of “coming of age” enterprise that varies widely from church to church and is more often then not coming to resemble some sort of ersatz “vision quest” borrowed from what we White liberals like to call “Native American spirituality.” It needs to be authentic to our own tradition, bring in learning about one’s own church and heritage, and lead kids to some serious engagement with what it means to be an entity becoming something more than a little kid but not quite yet an adult.
And this as well Scott, to keep you busy in your spare time–how about exploring baptism in our tradition? To my mind that is even more critical. We have scads of “dedications to life” (as if there was an alternative?) and various other rituals for welcoming new life happening in our churches, and at UUCF Revivals we have had some baptisms occuring that I personally think are a little too free floating. What was-is-might be–baptism for us?
Baptism has its own thread. Seatch for it on the front page.