Early Confirmation.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume XIII, Issue 3, 1 September 1922, Page 400

Early Confirmation.

OPINION OF "CHURCH TIMES." The letters on the subject of the age for Confirmation for which we have been able to find room are but a ' few of those which have reached us! But those which have not been printed have not been m vain, since they have enabfed ' us _to form some judgment upon tfie opinion of those who are closely associated with the religious education and ..life of the young. They .are m practical agreement upon two points. One is that the fixing of an arbitrary and late age is_, a. principal cause of the defection "of the young. An/rtlvei^ is liiat : preparatioh for First Commupioi*.

should be entirely distinct from preparation for Confirmation. We have for decades laboredHhis point of the value of early Confirmation, and need npw only reaffirm our belief that no bishop would venture to appear m any Court to defend his refusal to confirm a candidate who could fulfil the 'simple requirements which the Prayer Book lays down. No one wishes to bring bishops into Court, they have aii advantage which we are sure they -do riot, desire, to press. But since there are some dioceses m which the bishop is resolute, the way out of the •difficulty may be taken which the Prayer Book suggests. If candidates c;anW£ be confirmed until they have reached a certain age, children may be' prepared for their First Communion and admitted to it, under the excepting terms of the rubric. They are ready 'and desirous to be confirmed; they must not be deprived of two sacraments if one is withheld on a ground at which the Prayer Book does not even hint. It is very desirable that Confirmation should precede Communion, but it is not necessary. And if a general custom of admitting children to Communion grew up, we think that the bishops would very soon modify their age-rule for Confirmation. — ("Church Times").