Confirmation
In Christian denominations that practice infant baptism, confirmation is seen as the sealing of the covenant created in baptism. Those being confirmed are known as confirmands. The ceremony typically involves laying on of hands.
Catholicism views confirmation as a sacrament. The sacrament is called chrismation in Eastern Christianity. In the East it takes place immediately after baptism; in the West, when a child reaches the age of reason or early adolescence, or in the case of adult baptism immediately afterwards in the same ceremony. Among those Christians who practise confirmation during their teenage years, the practice may be perceived, secondarily, as a coming of age rite.
In many Protestant denominations, such as the Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican and Methodist traditions, confirmation is a rite that often includes a profession of faith by an already baptized person. Confirmation is required by Lutherans, Anglicans and other traditional Protestant denominations for full membership in the respective church; the covenant theology of Reformed churches considers baptized infants members of the church, while confirmation or "profession of faith" is required for admittance to the Lord's Table. In Catholic theology, it is the sacrament of baptism that confers membership, while "reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace". The Catholic and Methodist denominations teach that in confirmation, the Holy Spirit strengthens a baptized individual for their faith journey.
Confirmation is not practiced in Baptist, Anabaptist and other groups that teach believer's baptism. Thus, the sacrament or rite of confirmation is administered to those being received from those aforementioned groups, in addition to those converts from non-Christian religions.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not practice infant baptism, but individuals can be baptized after they reach eight years old. Confirmation in the LDS Church occurs shortly following baptism, which is not considered complete or fully efficacious until confirmation is received.
Various secular organizations also offer secular coming-of-age ceremonies as an alternative to Christian confirmation, while Unitarian Universalists have a similar coming-of-age ceremony.
Scriptural foundation
The roots of confirmation are found in the Church of the New Testament. In the Gospel of John chapter 14, Christ speaks of the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. Later, after his Resurrection, Jesus breathed upon them and they received the Holy Spirit, a process completed on the day of Pentecost. In Christianity, this Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit was held as the sign of the messianic age foretold by the prophets. Its arrival was proclaimed by the Apostle Peter. Filled with the Holy Spirit, the apostles began to proclaim "the mighty works of God". After this point, the New Testament records the apostles bestowing the Holy Spirit upon others through the laying on of hands.Three texts make it certain that a laying on of hands for the imparting of the Spirit – performed after the water-bath and as a complement to this bath – existed already in the earliest apostolic times. These texts are Acts 8:4–20 and 19:1–7, and Hebrews 6:1–6.
In the Acts of the Apostles 8:14–17, different ministers are named for the two actions. It is not deacon Philip, the baptiser, but only the apostles who were able to impart the pneuma through the laying on of hands:
Further on in the text, connection between the gift of the Holy Spirit and the gesture of laying on of hands appears even more clearly. Acts 8:18–19 introduces the request of Simon the Magician in the following way: "When Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands". In Acts 19, baptism of the disciples is mentioned in quite general terms, without the minister being identified. Referring to 1 Corinthians 1:17, it can be presumed that Paul left the action of baptising to others. However, Acts 19:6 then expressly states that it was Apostle Paul who laid his hands upon the newly baptised. Hebrews 6:1–6 distinguishes "the teaching about baptisms" from the teaching about "the laying on of hands". The difference may be understood in the light of the two passages in Acts 8 and 19.
Christian denominational views
Catholic Church
In the teaching of the Catholic Church, confirmation, known also as chrismation, is one of the seven sacraments instituted by Christ for the conferral of sanctifying grace and the strengthening of the union between the individual and God.The Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraphs 1302–1303, states:
In the Catholic Church, the sacrament is customarily conferred only on persons old enough to understand it, and the ordinary minister of confirmation is a bishop. "If necessity so requires", the diocesan bishop may grant specified priests the faculty to administer the sacrament, although normally he is to administer it himself or ensure that it is conferred by another bishop. In addition, the law itself confers the same faculty on the following:
"According to the ancient practice maintained in the Roman liturgy, an adult is not to be baptized unless he receives Confirmation immediately afterward, provided no serious obstacles exist." Administration of the two sacraments, one immediately after the other, to adults is normally done by the bishop of the diocese since "the baptism of adults, at least of those who have completed their fourteenth year, is to be referred to the Bishop, so that he himself may confer it if he judges this appropriate" However, if the bishop does not confer the baptism, then it devolves on the priest whose office it then is to confer both sacraments, since, "in addition to the bishop, the law gives the faculty to confirm to the following,... priests who, in virtue of an office which they lawfully hold, baptize an adult or a child old enough for catechesis or receive a validly baptized adult into full communion with the Church."
In Eastern Catholic Churches, the usual minister of this sacrament is the parish priest, using olive oil consecrated by a bishop and administering the sacrament immediately after baptism. This corresponds exactly to the practice of the early Church, when at first those receiving baptism were mainly adults, and of the non-Latin Catholic Eastern Churches.
Rite of confirmation in the West
The main reason why the West separated the sacrament of confirmation from that of baptism was to re-establish direct contact between the person being initiated with the bishops. In the Early Church, the bishop administered all three sacraments of initiation, assisted by the priests and deacons and, where they existed, by deaconesses for women's baptism. The post-baptismal chrismation in particular was reserved to the bishop. When adults no longer formed the majority of those being baptized, this chrismation was delayed until the bishop could confer it. Until the 12th century, priests often continued to confer confirmation before giving Communion to very young children.After the Fourth Lateran Council, Communion, which continued to be given only after confirmation, was to be administered only on reaching the age of reason. Some time after the 13th century, the age of confirmation and Communion began to be delayed further, from seven, to twelve and to fifteen. In the 18th century, in France the sequence of sacraments of initiation was changed. Bishops started to impart confirmation only after the first Eucharistic communion. The reason was no longer the busy calendar of the bishop, but the bishop's will to give adequate instruction to the youth. The practice lasted until Pope Leo XIII in 1897 asked to restore the primary order and to celebrate confirmation back at the age of reason, a change that lasted less than two decades. In 1910, his successor, Pope Pius X, showing concern for the easy access to the Eucharist for children, in his Letter Quam Singulari lowered the age of first communion to seven. That was the origin of the widespread custom in parishes to organise the First Communion for children at.
The 1917 Code of Canon Law, while recommending that confirmation be delayed until about seven years of age, allowed it be given at an earlier age. Only on 30 June 1932 was official permission given to change the traditional order of the three sacraments of Christian initiation: the Sacred Congregation for the Sacraments then allowed, where necessary, that confirmation be administered first Holy Communion. This novelty, originally seen as exceptional, became more and more the accepted practice. Thus, in the mid-20th century, confirmation began to be seen as an occasion for professing personal commitment to the faith on the part of someone approaching adulthood.
However, the Catechism of the Catholic Church warns: "Although Confirmation is sometimes called the 'sacrament of Christian maturity,' we must not confuse adult faith with the adult age of natural growth, nor forget that the baptismal grace is a grace of free, unmerited election and does not need 'ratification' to become effective."
On the canonical age for confirmation in the Latin Church Catholic Church, the present 1983 Code of Canon Law, which maintains unaltered the rule in the 1917 Code, lays down that the sacrament is to be conferred on the faithful at about the age of discretion, unless the episcopal conference has decided on a different age, or there is a danger of death or, in the judgement of the minister, a grave reason suggests otherwise. The Code prescribes the age of discretion also for the sacraments of Reconciliation and first Holy Communion.
In some places the setting of a later age, e.g. mid-teens in the United States, 11 or 12 in Ireland and early teens in Britain, has been abandoned in recent decades in favor of restoring the traditional order of the three sacraments of Christian initiation. Even where a later age has been set, a bishop may not refuse to confer the sacrament on younger children who request it, provided they are baptized, have the use of reason, are suitably instructed and are properly disposed and able to renew the baptismal promises.