I always enjoy the Confirmation Service at Glenalmond. It’s partly the contact with a group of young people, of course. But it’s also the opportunity of trying to catch and hold the interest of the very diverse congregation – their parents and godparents, uncles and aunts, grandparents and friends. All of those people are there in support – so it’s an opportunity of trying to describe faith in an attractive way.
This kind of Confirmation Service is rare today. I think it was 26 – or was it 27 – young people. More often now, it’s small numbers and diverse ages. Some teenagers – but also adults of every agegroup. It’s people who have decided that this is their way of marking a fresh beginning in discipleship and sometimes a new start in a new community of faith. The stories which lie behind that are always both important and interesting. It seems to me that one of the most important things we can do is to give people the opportunity of marking that new start – or staging post in their journey of faith
So on Friday, we came together in the beautiful Chapel in Glenalmond College – and I hope it was a memorable moment for all of this.