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From the pastor's pen -
Confirmation
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Confirmation
People ask: Is confirmation Biblical? I must say: Not really. There is actually nothing about confirmation ceremony in the Bible. This is purely a tradition developed by the church. But it is valuable if it is useful.
In Finland there is a very strong tradition of attending the confirmation classes. This means a profound course in learning the basics of Christian faith. In old days this teaching happened after school days or during holidays in a day class. There were up to 100 young people in the class and the final exam was by public questioning in the church in front of the whole congregation. Nowadays confirmation education is mainly given in camps in a relaxed setting. Normally in a group of about 25 young people spend a week with the teachers and assistants in countryside to learn about Christian faith. A lot depends on the quality of the teachers, but in this way 90 % of the Finnish 15-year olds learn the basics of Christian faith from the Bible. This is a very valuable tool for Christian education and we can thank God that this tradition has survived.
Many of the young people in the IEC families go along to these confirmation camps with their friends. However in the recent years we have also organised our own little camp in English language for the 15-year olds. Again this year we are planning to have the camp in the countryside, about 2 hours drive from Helsinki.
The idea of confirmation is to offer an opportunity for a personal and public commitment for those who were baptised as babies. When somebody is baptised as a baby, the baptism is not seen as a response, but as a gift of God. The child is responding to this faith little by little as one is growing in understanding and faith. Confirmation has been invented as a public response of saying yes to Jesus in front of witnesses. This response requires some knowledge. The knowledge is provided in the confirmation teaching, which now is about 80 hours of studies.
Some of the young people in the confirmation education have not been baptised. Then this education serves as a baptism class. Actually there is no need for any confirmation, if one is baptised at this stage. The public profession of faith happens in the baptism.
Then there are those who were baptised as babies, but had no opportunity to attend the confirmation classes at the regular age. These people are welcomed to join a Basic Christianity course for adults. Most of these people are studying in order to be baptised, but the same teaching is also good for those who want to get confirmed. The confirmation or baptism then normally happens in our Sunday service.
Some children in the ages of 10 to 13 also need to have baptism classes. These are children of Christian families, where the tradition is to have the child baptised at an understanding age. Then this is the age to start thinking about baptism. Waiting until the age of 15 maybe too long. Occasionally we have a class for this age group as well.
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From The Pastor's Pen 
