About St. Marks

Looking Again at Confirmation

Whether or not you have taken the class, what do you think the purpose of Confirmation Class is at St. Marks?

1. To help us examine issue in our lives. 2. To plug us into the community (1)

1. Adults examine in a group setting their religious beliefs and traditions as they relate to their secular lives and strive to make valuable connections. 2. Strengthen community of St. Marks. 3. Freedom to express self on views on spirituality and organized religion. (2)

Launch people on a common, but personal journey toward self-awareness and faith. (3)

To explore life's issues and come up with an individual, personal support system for those selected beliefs within the issues. (4)

Self-examination: Overt. Indoctrination: Covert (5)

I think confirmation class has three purposes: 1) Helping parishioners and newcomers explore their spiritual and other values. 2) Helping newcomers integrate themselves into our community. 3) Helping our community to maintain a structure (functional education, including the framework of 5 unites and the concept of issues) for our journey together, including our worship planning and sermons, Christian Education program, meetings and retreats, Shrinemont, etc. (6)

I think that the main purpose of the Confirmation Class is (not necessarily "should be") to serve as an initiation rite for St. Marks (Note: not to the larger church, at lease not here), in large part by introducing participants to Func. Ed. (7)

I think it has three purposes. 1) It provides prospective communicants with a clear conception of their commitment. 2) It gives them a strong social base. 3) It gives them a better understanding of their personal faith. (8)

I think the purpose is to give newcomers a chance to look at issues in their lives - and equally important, to build the group into a new band of disciples to enter the life of the church together -- if that is what they choose to do. (9)

Building community, developing common understandings, experiences, and vocabulary. (10)

To give people a common/shared spiritual experience and foundation -- to begin to learn to speak the truth to ourselves and each other -- to know and be known. (11)

I think the purpose is to introduce people to functional education, not prepare them for confirmation. It's misnamed. (12)

As to the purpose of the class, I think it is meant to bring people together in a shared and difficult experience. I think it does do that but it could and should be so much more. (13)

As best I can tell, the purpose of the class is to break past the barriers that people erect, that keep them from experiencing their lives, in all of their ambiguity and pain, in all of their fullness-and to learn that, in the end, all of their coping mechanisms will break down, so that they need to trust God. (14)

Well, I don't think there is any one single purpose. I think there are multiple purposes, and that the emphasis shifts depending on who's in charge and what else is going on in the wider life of the parish. At its best, when the parish is relatively calmly functioning and there is quiet, accepted authority at the helm, it functions in much the way I described in Number 5 above: to restore a sense of love and hope in God to people who have been ill-served -- or unserved -- by the church. And oh yes, it's a good idea socially because you have fun in these lovely retreat centers (that Hitchcockian place in Frederick notwithstanding) and you have a common foxhole-type experience that cuts through a lot of preliminaries right away with anyone you may meet here.

On the other hand, when there's a lot of power-struggling and attendant anxiety in the parish, then it becomes just another way of circling the wagons. Then the priority shifts to the social, and what had been a side-effect or byproduct -- that sense of being "one of us" -- becomes the entire point. When the props are kicked out from under you, and you're thrust into these very basic questions of "who are we?", one natural response is, "Well, whatever else we are, we're the people who all take confirmation class" and it becomes -- wrongly, I believe --an end in itself, rather than a means towards a deepened relationship with God. (15)

I struggle with this question, because I feel that you ought to be asking what the purpose of Confirmation Class ought to be. Firstly, I think that the class ought to reflect something of the uniqueness of St. Mark's as an open community. We are deservedly proud of that openness to skeptics, gays and lesbians, etc. Secondly, I find real appeal in the func. ed. claim to help us explore the tensions of life, and how we approach them. The class ought to be an open exploration of how liberal Christians can deal with their problems. (16)

Confirmation Class at St. Mark's is a multi-purpose beast. It gave me an understanding of how St. Mark's wants to conduct it's life, how the community wants to be. And even if we aren't, that's what we're going for. But I didn't get that until much later, in fact, I think of that purpose more now, now that something in the class needs to change. At first, it just functioned to make me feel more on the inside. If you decide that St. Mark's is a place you want to be, Confirmation Class is a good place to start out. Once I had taken the class, and figured out what all those "in-the-know" people were talking about, I at least had the standing to decide if I want to be one of them or be one of those people constantly ranting about the exclusivity of Confirmation Class. (I've since found my own way, but CC did get me started.) And it I believe it makes participants think seriously about whether St. Mark's is the place for them.

The class also functions as an intro to all the other classes, but if we need to change the format of Christian Education, then that function isn't as necessary. (17)

For me, the purpose of any confirmation class is as the name states, to be confirmed. St. Mark's confirmation class seems to have very different goals and I believe it should be re-named. After taking the course I cannot say with any certainty what its purpose is. (19)

I believe that this class is the way to come into the St. Mark's Community. It is a common experience for most of the parishioners; it's my understanding that this is something that one must do to belong. I would add that it is most certainly not preparation for confirmation; I'm sorry that is true. (20)

Purpose of class - fuzzy to me. (22)

I think the purpose of the confirmation class is misguided and is intended to indoctrinate new members in the functional process, as conceived some time in the past. I see no relationship between the purpose of the class and becoming a confirmed communicant. The class should be called "Living in the Tension", "Tom and Ann's Wild Adventure," or "Introduction to the Functional Education Process" (24)

In a city in which the population is in flux and, in general, separated from hometowns elsewhere, Confirmation Class has always seemed to be intended to create "community" - a smaller group within the wider community where people could be known and in which this group could support each other in times of sadness and joy, celebration and trial. In addition, Confirmation Class, being an experience in which many people in the parish had participated, reinforced a wider "community" by virtue of shared references. Confirmation Class seemed to me to be a way of helping "self sufficient" adults discover their longing for community and communion.

Confirmation class - at least the one I took, the two I taught and the one I supervised - have focused on values: the ones we know we have, the ones which may be more obscured, the ones we inherited from our families or histories, and especially the ones which have been unexamined. I think Confirmation Class allows us to revisit our beliefs and our behavior to cull out outmoded ways of interacting with each other, with God and with our spiritual needs and revitalize or "confirm" that which is "life-giving."

Confirmation Class introduces participants - usually for the first time or in an extended manner - to Charles Penniman and the Functional Education discipline which, like it or not, is the cornerstone of St. Mark's "theology."

Confirmation Class encourages "honesty, authenticity and inquiry" - values which forge a community which can roll with the punches and grow with the times as opposed to being superficial, tidy and stagnant.

Confirmation Class provides participants with a keen appreciation of the crucifixion/ resurrection experience. It may help participants embrace rather than deny or disown negative emotions as a gateway to "new life."

Confirmation Class gives participants an intellectually stimulating and challenging view of Christian symbols and stories which may, in fact, be quite different from the "lore," "dogma" or "morality" instilled earlier in ones' life.

Confirmation Class challenges facile answers and superficial "faith" - enabling doubts and questions to bubble up to the surface so that they can be examined.

Confirmation Class provides a well-spring of indelible images (through launches, reflections and categories) which can be accessed long after the class is over. For example, when I was diagnosed with cancer - three years after last teaching Confirmation Class, I remembered playing Ann and I had a powerful way of being with my pain, fear and alienation.

Confirmation Class establishes a platform for other adult education classes enabling class members - regardless of interpersonal skills, religious knowledge, age or other variables - to tackle issues more deeply and eagerly and to ultimately grapple with essential and eternal questions-the stuff we tend to call "theology." (25)

Purpose, first off, it is not a confirmation class. The name is a misnomer. I have had confirmation classes when I was confirmed as an adult and it remains one of the most defining moments of my spiritual journey. At one point during our class time together, Al went over to VTS and bought John Westerhoff's book on what it means to be an Episcopalian. He had it copied and distributed to everyone. This was after about three weeks of people asking the teachers if they could provide some information. Near the end, Jim did have a conversation about the tenets of the Episcopal Church. (26)

I thought the purpose of Confirmation was to introduce me to the ways of the Episcopal church and its theology, symbols and rituals. As well, I knew it was the required "rite of passage" in order to enter into other dimensions of the community, plus it would be a place for the formation of some beginning friendships. (27)

The purpose of the class is to provide people, somewhat forcibly, with an introduction to functional education. (28)

I think its purpose is immersion and acculturation to the St. Mark's outlook, approach, take on faith, or what have you. It is also socialization into an approach that allows full participation in functional education as students and teachers. (29)

Unclear. It seems to be primarily about "belonging to" St. Mark's. The main reason to attend by past participants was to "really get to know" people. A few claimed in a general way that their life "was changed" by it, but until David Deutsch's vestry election speech I had not heard any convincing testimony. (30)

A Way To Belong (31)

A common experience of the functional education process. We do also receive a few confirmands from each class. However, many who take it are already confirmed (33)

It helped me confront those situations in life when I had become my own worst enemy and when things were totally out of my control. This led me to realize that I needed faith in a power that is beyond me. It also creates a place of "belonging" in the St. Marks community. (35)

I think that Confirmation Class: 1) Helps build community (ies). 2) Gives everyone a "common experience," a sense of familiar. 3) Also a sense of belonging and ownership (almost akin to initiation) (36)

Build small groups. Sell St. Mark's (37)

To educate about the common process used at St. Mark's and to create community. (38)

Trial by fire-I'd vote against this value. Self-examination Background for a commitment decision (39)

To help us confront our lives and the decisions we make in a caring, spiritual community. (40)

The purpose seems to be a requirement for membership. It is also a requirement to take some other classes. (41)

To provide a structure in which people can explore their disconnect between what they say and what they do in the context of the Christian tradition (42)

To give newcomers a community, a microcosm of the larger community. Since I think that is what Christianity is about, I think it is a core experience. (43)

A gateway to participation in our spiritual community (44)

I always wondered about that. It is not community. That comes from working or worshipping together. The class is too controlled to be a real source of communication. (45)

To form friendships (46)

It appears to have various purposes: 1) serious spiritual soul searching; 2) education about the Episcopal faith; 3) indoctrination into St. Mark's. (47)

Build a community where people grow in their ability to be open, known and vulnerable so that they can delve more deeply into the issues of their lives and work together more openly and thus fruitfully in the building of God's realm in St. Marks and in the world. (48)

To perpetuate "func. ed." and its whole way of approaching the meaning of Christianity. (49)

I've never been entirely sure, and I suspect it's changed over time. (50)

I think the real purpose of the class is a St. Mark's Rite of Passage -- a common ground. It has nothing to do with confirmation so the first thing I learned was that St. Mark's uses lots of double talk, is not truthful in labeling and is willing to get into dangerous areas with leadership that is untrained for the job. (51)

The purpose includes my previous answer, e.g. learning to get in touch with and express my authentic feelings and experiences, and to confront the hard choices in life, acknowledging feelings both good and bad. In addition, on a community level, this class teaches "St. Mark's talk", "I" statements of feeling, serves to create group bonding of the class, acts as a right of passage, and begins a very long journey towards full maturity, where ever we may have gotten stuck along the way. (52)

To provide a structure for assimilation and belonging in the St. Marks community. (53)

I guess the idea is that it provides a way for the people taking the class to establish a core group of friends within the Parish while participating in a series of exercises designed to teach them about themselves. I think the class also strives to provide class members with a series of faith based tools and processes that they can use to find strength during life's difficult times. (54)

A place to take a deeper look at your life -- and a group to explore with and be cared for. There is a connection to the larger body of our church. A common language. (55)

I think the purpose of Confirmation Class is to help people find their way, both in St. Marks and outside. I have not taken the class again, though I have considered it. I think it remains an important part of our life together. (56)

To introduce people to the common language of the community and give them a core community of friends. (57)

To help create a community -- to bring new members into the community. (58)

Help people find a common language to open up, be more intimate in a non-judgmental way. Also, then a way to connect with the community. (59)

Having taken the class, I do now know (or think I know) what it's all about: Joining. It's a class on the issue, on the cost and promises if you will, of joining, of entering into a group/class as a stranger, and then entering the St. Mark's community. And for me it worked!!! I coordinated the 11 AM acolytes, taught Sunday School, joined worship task forces, and ran for the vestry. Of course I had to teach myself about Episcopalians and the Liturgy both by keeping my eyes and ears open AND visiting the bookstore at VTS and the National Cathedral. (60)

Indoctrination and initiation into parish life, but not necessarily into the Episcopal Church. (61)

Create a faith community within a faith community as participants are freed to say "these are my folk." A faith community with distinctions (categorical) that make sense out of the non-sense of life that empower members to live a joyful and meaningful life in community. (62)

To allow and point to a personal religious journey, regardless of where you start: atheist, Jew, Episcopalian or Fundamentalist. In an intimate, straight taking, straight shooting group -- a folk, leading to a faithful community. It is the firm foundation on which all that thrives at St. Mark's is built. (63)

A method for allowing people to bring a discipline for understanding how life and religion can form a community where openness is a goal and questioning is accepted. (64)

Not confirmation in the Episcopal Church's tradition. Nor do I find any clear agreement among parishioners with when I've talked about the purpose of the "confirmation" class. (65)

But the real purpose of Confirmation class at St. Mark's as I understand it is community building. I did join the church and have been active since then, so I suppose from that point of view it worked. I am listed in the directory as the class rep for my class but have never done anything much. I liked the people in the class but did not make any real friends and never felt the urge to get us all together (after the first few months. I think we did have one or two get togethers early on.) (66)

Is? Or should be? Confirmation Class can be an important bonding experience bringing people to a recognition of the importance of a faithful community and giving them some experience of the depths of meaning involved in a community. (67)

Gateway to full membership (i.e. St. Mark's communicant). Hands-on introduction to func. ed. discipline. (68)

Community-building and indoctrination to Charles Penniman func. ed. and very little if anything to do with Episcopal church, some focus is given to the philosophy of Christianity. (69)

1) To present an open inquiry into the meaning of "faith" for a modern skeptical person. 2) Bringing newcomers into St. Mark's community. (71)

When I attended, it seemed like a strange initiation rite. Yes, and it serves to put newcomers (or those who finally take the class) into a situation where issues of faith can be explored. From what I hear, more recent classes have been more effective I bringing up questions of faith, while de-mystifying the process so it feels less like being manipulated. (72)

Bonding. (Lots of other words too. In my case, validation come to mind. Also the experience of "Meeting Jesus again for the first time." But I digress. ) (73)

As currently constituted, it has a narrow purpose to convince the participants of the power and efficacy of functional education. (74)

To influence your living from day to day. (76)

A major part of the class is to nudge newcomers into becoming communicants or members. (77)

Its principal purpose is to bond a group of newcomers together, to create a mini-community from which they can graduate into the larger community. It purports to introduce people to functional education and the emotional experiences that method is said to invoke. The method doesn't work very well with people like me who are of a skeptical mind and who have spent a lot of time in psychotherapy (true of many at St. Mark's, especially young people) and are sensitive to being manipulated. (78)

To perpetuate "func ed" and its who way of approaching the meaning of Christianity. (79a)

I agree (79b)

Adult decision-making. Opening/introducing people to Func. Ed. (80)

I think that this is one of the questions that has not been clearly defined. In the Episcopal Church, my assumption is that confirmation class gives a person the foundation of the beliefs of the Episcopal Church and educates him or her sufficiently for that person to decide whether to publicly confirm a belief in and desire to live by the Christian faith as outlined by the Episcopal Church.

Confirmation class at St. Marks does none of this, and in my opinion is misnamed. My impression is that confirmation class at St. Mark's intends to build community and encourage people to discuss personal issues with each other.

If the class is to continue to be called Confirmation Class, then I believe that it needs to find a better blend of both purposes. If it is to evolve into a "living in community" class, then I would refine the purpose to something like "building community and encouraging discussion of issues of faith in our daily lives." (81)

To indicate that old style bible story Christianity is not all there is. That religion is the activities that give meaning to life. That there is a tension between alternatives and that they may not be resolvable. (82)

Several. A Way to Belong: CC is a way to belong. Many folks take the CC for the folk focus (though they may not be aware of this). Newcomers see SM as a lively body (of Christ, I have later come to believe) of intelligent people who are creative, engaging, amusing, busy, annoying (but not rejected for it), intelligent, and questioning - and they like each other a lot & work hard at what they do. This is a dedicated community with deep friendships. If, I were a newcomer and I wanted to get to know these cool people, and find others like them, it wouldn't take long to discover that, as some will tell you, "you've got to take CC!" I know that some people resent this "coercion;" I didn't. I wanted to find the way to belong. I knew (at some level) that this was a "Chosen Belonging;" I wanted to be part of "Church" as Penniman described it (I later learned), well born, moving freely, etc.

Learn community values; customs: The CC also serves to inculcate the values/customs of this community. It teaches our peculiar language of FE. But it teaches much more: that what counts is knowing myself and others at our deepest. Whatever the particular circumstances of the people in the class, we discover (and are surprised to learn) that we could still learn to connect with people we would not ordinarily pick as friends because at some deeper level we discover we are alike. Through the CC, we learn that all of us know /experience/ encounter/ succumb to/ triumph over, etc. curiosity, anxiety, joy, despair, anticipation and lots more. We come to believe that however/ whatever many things may separate us, and even though we are on our individual spiritual journeys we want/need/are called to (by Christ/God?) to the company of a community. We are intrigued by questions, and resist canned answers. We trust honest experiences of others as pointing to some new possible directions for ourselves. We feel God in our presence, and we learn to trust the mystery. We learn that we are accountable (see below) and are expected to call others when they fall short and be called on when we do as well. We give up and are turned around Etc. Etc. We no longer want to deal (at least within the community) at a superficial Washington-style level. If fact, we find we know more about people's life issues than about their professions. This, then, becomes the way we deal in community.

Feeling special; initiation: The CC makes us feel different; special -- whether we like it or hate it. We are often changed by the experience and become somehow different. And we recognize that we are part of a special community which can also be acted out in not too acceptable ways e.g. our keeping the Diocese at arms' length. To become a part of something special, one is often initiated (e.g. Baptism, Confirmation, fraternity rites, etc.) When you join, you take an oath of membership after completing your status as a neophyte or a pledge. If our experience of CC is positive (and sometimes even if we didn't like it), we tell newcomers in guarded, almost mysterious tones that they are in for a "special" experience e.g., meeting Tom and Ann. We may overdo this in our "rush" of newcomers, but we like being and belonging to something different. {How many other churches would tolerate risking Tom and Ann? - we brag about it}

In a homogenized or atomized world, we hunger for being part of something that is special and we feel solid, connected. Of course, what Jesus teaches is also about that, and after a while, we learn that, too. But it takes time, I've found, to recognize the deeper significance of belonging to a Christian community.

An introduction to functional education: At the end of my CC, Jim Adams told us that CC is the kindergarten of Functional Education. As much as I resented that statement at the time it proved true for me. We are ever learning. Learning about the mystery of life/experience becomes a life's work, and it unfolds and God's grace toward and love for an imperfect creation (us) is revealed. I am excited and driven by it.

Confirmation: New folks (as well as old) are confused by the title of this class. This makes it hard to sell and explain to newcomers, especially people who expect the 30-second sound bite. For me, CC did "confirm" my choice to become a Christian even though I did not know what that meant (I couldn't articulate it then and I certainly knew nothing to speak of about the Episcopal Church but that didn't seem to matter at the time). CC was a re-confirmation at an adult level (not to put down the significance of my childhood conformation).

Faith journey. CC was the beginning of my faith journey. I think it is/can be for others. As presently designed and taught, it puts us off balance and attacks our smug confidence -- and our insistence that we've got it all figured out. We think we are smart, urbane, and have seen it all before (after all, we've all been in therapy, EST, whatever). But CC (and T&A) take us by surprise. Our barriers are broken down; we are defenseless; it is unfair; we are manipulated; the teachers are practicing therapy w/o a license; it's dated; the teachers are incompetent; the launches have nothing to do with my life; etc. All of these critiques have a strong ring of truth and fact to them. There are, as teachers acknowledge, many glitches and launches that bomb; much could be improved in the training, planning, and execution.

But these failings can also serve as justifications for me to seize upon when I'd rather resist entering places in my life that become uncovered in the class, places where I am vulnerable and defenseless if left only to my own devises; and I resist entering into an exploration of them because I am afraid and have no faith. [What will uphold me if I come across stupid, fall on my face, am lost, am a loser, lose all?]

Missed opportunities: Often in CC we engage in either attacking or defending launches, how the launch was presented, how the cue question was phrased, etc., without asking, if all these had been done better, where would I be left. If my first reaction is that I think the launch/discussion is stupid, I often fail to ask whether something else is going on within me that cause this to bite. Screwing up (as a teacher or student) is part of the process (as in life); how we address this (or don't) in the class sometimes can provide a discovery of what is more important than what the teachers intended to launch. Time and again we miss opportunities to do this in taking and teaching classes. Recognition of, and owning up to, this fact is in itself a learning that has particular value in a world that prefers to acknowledge only that "mistakes were made." The discomfort of the class/staff at this point can become the point since real life is being lived (or denied) at this point and this is a reflection of my own life in the "real world," if I but acknowledge it. To me it matters more to look at/deal with our missed opportunities than to try to teach how we can avoid them.

Humility: CC can teach/has taught me (as both a student and teacher) humility which is a good antidote to my giving in to need to control; a submission of the ego helps me acknowledge my need for/dependence upon/ help from God/people through whom God speaks. (I am reminded of the lecture C. S. Lewis is portrayed giving in Shadowlands, in which he describes God as a sculptor who constantly hammers away at us). If I am brought down and survive (in a safe place), the fear of falling loses some of its power over me. If I trust enough to submit, to practice, I can learn to "survive." If I am humble and don't pretend to know/insist upon knowing the "Answer," I can be open to the unpeeling of the mystery, etc. But I resist being humbled and I resist those who would humble me, with good cause. And I resist judgment. This is tough stuff to deal with.

Shared ministry: In a functional education setting, the clergy, as well as laity, can be vulnerable and acknowledge they are not the last word on all "religious" questions or those things the laity has learned to look to clergy for. This is a radical notion from what I've been told normally exists in the church. If, as a layman, I accept this, then I have to begin to look at the clergy differently, recognizing both my independence from/my dependence on them. [As parishioners, we often fail to acknowledge our conflicting desires in this regard, and the mixed signals we give the clergy]. I have to encounter clergy as "real" people. They have to, too, if they are to model/encourage us to take responsibility for our own spiritual growth.

Beginning with experience. In CC, we don't start with the text. We don't start with the clergy. This is intentional and imbedded in Penniman, I believe. Instead, we tell our own stories; then the real issues of our lives emerge and that is what brought us - to make sense out of the non-sense of life. This is what we are here for, no matter how pious (or anti-pious) we are in telling what we are looking for. We become connected to each other by hearing, probing each others' stories, even the stories we were ignorant of/or kept at arms' length/ or afraid to approach e.g. Bible stories. When I am willing to acknowledge that the experience here of my community is real, these strangers become my folk, and the possibility becomes that the people in my tradition become my folk as well. The Lore then becomes my lore; the Symbols, emerging from our experience now, become my symbols. We learn what symbols are, how they emerge, their power, transcendence, their exclusivity; their ability to unite/divide communities, etc.

A community emerges and extends beyond my particular experience through history. I am part of that history; you are part of that history; we are part of that history. I can no longer dismiss you or the God that made you/us as irrelevant to my life.

Accountability: I am the author of my life and my spiritual journey: I am accountable for writing the story of my own faith, assisted by the "teachings" of others, including the clergy. I can't shove that off on you to do for me. While other people/events/fate etc. intervene to throw me off (and teach me humility), I am the author nonetheless. (83)

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