32 members of the College community were confirmed by the Right Reverend, the Lord Bishop of Guildford, Andrew Watson. The candidates were in every year group and also included two adults within our community. This is the highest number to be confirmed in one year since 1993.
The Chapel Choir sang the beautiful anthem Grow in Grace composed and conducted by our Director of Music, Mr Paul Johnson-Hyde. The Head, Sir Anthony Seldon, and the Assistant Chaplain, Mrs Rebecca Catterall, read the lessons.
Following the service, Bishop Andrew wrote to the Senior Chaplain, the Revd Canon Andrew Haviland: “What a very joyous confirmation service last night, and many thanks for putting it all together and preparing such a great (and large) bunch of candidates! I always love confirmations (even after 16 years of bishopping) but this one was particularly memorable.”
The pupils have been meeting with the Senior Chaplain each week in small supportive groups to discuss what it means to be Christian in the 21st Century, to talk about God, the significance of Jesus and how his message of love has been revealed to our world.
Canon Andrew wrote: “In its simplest form, the Christian message is that we are asked to love God and love our neighbour as best we can. We explored how we should respond to this good news. One of the main aims of the course was to empower the pupils to question and not be satisfied with easy or trite answers. It has been great fun too!”
On what prompted them to be confirmed a number of pupils wrote:
- “I really enjoy being in the beautiful St Luke’s Chapel and sitting through Chapel services on Wednesday and Saturday, which I find very relaxing. These services, and the Chapel, have made me want to explore my faith more.”
- “I have really enjoyed learning more about my faith, learning how to pray and what to pray about has been a key part of the process because I was clueless beforehand. The sessions have been informative but relaxed and it put no pressure on me so made me more eager to learn!”
- “I wish to be confirmed to learn more about the Christian faith, and to become more involved with it. Also, many thanks for the Confirmation lessons we have been having, all the Crawfurd girls have thoroughly enjoyed them. Especially me!”
- “I would like to be confirmed because I am really enjoying learning about my faith. Being in Chapel brings me a huge amount of peace.”
The evening was preceded by a light supper for the candidates and their families in Big School, with the Bishop and key staff.
Canon Andrew said: ‘This joyous service marks the start of their discernment about their faith. The Chaplaincy team remain on hand to answer further questions and to be alongside them for as long as they need.”
At the end of the service, the Bishop said the recruiting for next year starts now! If anyone, pupil or adult, would like to find out more about being confirmed, just get in touch with Canon Andrew or their local parish priest.
