Bishop Samuel Aquila of Fargo said he is delighted to have first-hand papal approval for changing the order by which children in his diocese receive the sacraments.
“I was very surprised in what the Pope said to me, in terms of how happy he was that the sacraments of initiation have been restored to their proper order of baptism, confirmation then first Eucharist,” said Bishop Aquila, after meeting Pope Benedict on March 8.
Thank you, Your Holiness! And it’s about time. Confirmation has become the strangest of sacraments since the classic order was reversed. And don’t get me started on “Solemn Communion” services for kiddies who have been receiving since infancy!
Well done. Rome has done some strange things with the sacraments over the last thousand years or so. This does seem to correct one innovation that was unwise.
With deference to my more educated brethren, I must disagree.
I am a late-comer to things Anglican, (Baptist roots and all); been here since just before the 79 BCP. Came through the articles, the 28 BCP and the “Appointed Homilies†plus general layman’s theological reading. But withholding the Sacrament until after confirmation always seemed much more in line with Baptist theology than Anglican or Roman.
The parallel I kept seeing was always with the other “Sacrament of the Gospel†in the Baptist practice of reserving baptism for those who were of age to make an “adult†profession of faith. The same would be true for Communion – everyone stands on his own conversion, his own confession of faith.
Our model is a bit different – those of age should be properly instructed, and there comes a time to own for oneself what our sponsors promised for us – but initiation into the Body of Christ is based on God’s grace, not my understanding. It is mediated to us by the faith of that Body, not just our own.
The only thing I can see in favor of withholding the Sacrament is tradition –an while that is certainly an extremely important voice, in this case, I think that voice is wrong.
Why not baptize and confirm at the same time? I like the order and still think Confirmation should be at a more mature age but if you want to insist on eucharist at a young age, then confirmation first is reasonable.
Baptism and Confirmation are actually found in the very text of the BCP Baptism rite. The first part is as usually understood, THEN the so-called “new” BCP rite reinstitutes Confirmation in its correct understanding, which is in the rite of Chrismation, in which explicitly confirmatory language is employed “N., you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” Massey Shepherd (peace and blessing be upon him) pointed this out to me himself. The language of the “other” rite of Confirmation, the one Bishops like to use, is more of a generalized strengthening and empowering blessing, patched together with a confirmation of one’s Baptismal vows.
Thanks, Senior Priest. Never knew that. Is that how the Orthodox understand baptism- as both? what we may still think of as baptism and confirmation.
Would it be more accurate to state that we think of as “baptism” is actually baptism and confirmation? Just trying to clarify terms.
Re # 6
SC blu cat lady
Baptism and Chrismation are two separate sacraments (mysteries). They are however traditionally done one right after the other with Holy Communion following as quickly as practicable.
On a side note, am I the only one experiencing zero comment notifications from T:19? I keep checking my spam folder to see if they are being diverted by Yahoo, but nothing is showing up at all.
#9, I do not get the notifications either
#9 and #10 – the issue with lack of email notifications may be related a move of the server in late Jan or early Feb. to a “cloud” hosting service.
When I was working on some Lent posts at Lent & Beyond last week and I tried to link Kendall’s “Lent” category here, I discovered the category links were broken. I wrote the elves and they told me there have been some problems with the blog admin features for the past few weeks. I’ve heard nothing new, so I don’t know the prognosis.