Faith CONFIRMED

This book belongs to...... confirmed on...... at......

Signature of parish priest......

Signature of bishop...... Peter Jackson read theology at Oxford, where he also qualified as a teacher and prepared for ordination. He served in two parishes before becoming Chaplain and Head of Religious Studies at Harrow School. He taught GCSE and A level Religious Studies for twenty years. In addition to having been a GCSE examiner, he has also advised the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (now the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency), chaired a national religious studies association, and trained teachers for King’s College London and the Institute of Education. Since 2003, he has been Vicar of Christ Church, Southgate, London, where he has trained newly ordained clergy and prepared adults and young people for confirmation. He is also the author of Ethics for GCSE (SPCK, 2011).

Chris Wright has taught extensively in Britain and abroad. He has been a lecturer in Religious Education at King’s College London and a headteacher in three schools in the Middle East and in England. He has published a number of books on the teaching of Christianity to teenagers and young adults, including Key Christian Beliefs, Life Issues and Jesus for Today. He now works with a large family of Church of England schools. ‘The Church has waited a long time for a lively presentation of the basics of the Christian faith, with such a clear focus on the sacraments. Faith Confirmed will be widely welcomed in parishes and schools where experiencing the Church at worship is an integral part of growing into faith.’ David Stancliffe, former Bishop of Salisbury

‘Faith Confirmed is an excellent accompaniment on the Christian journey of faith. Its user-friendly layout is eye-catching and engaging. It’s accessible to all ages, packed with information and spiritually uplifting. A book to treasure always.’ Louise Codrington-Marshall, Priest-in-charge St Nicholas and St Luke’s Church, Deptford, London

Faith CONFIRMED

Preparing for confirmation

New edition

PETER JACKSON and CHRIS WRIGHT First published in Great Britain in 1999

Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 36 Causton Street London SW1P 4ST www.spckpublishing.co.uk

Reprinted six times Second edition published 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

SPCK does not necessarily endorse the individual views contained in its publications.

The authors and the publisher would like to express their gratitude to Jeffrey John and Bishop David Stancliffe, and others at Affirming Catholicism, for their help in bringing this project to fruition.

For copyright acknowledgements, see page 125.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978–0–281–06423–6 eBook ISBN 978–0–281–06977–4

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Typeset by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press

eBook by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong

Produced on paper from sustainable forests Contents

What this book is for ix 8 The Bible 47 Introduction 1 A powerful book 47 1 God 2 How to use the Bible in our lives 50 How do we know God? 3 The books themselves 52 What kind of God do we 9 Living as a Christian 55 believe in? 6 Conscience 56 But what about suffering? 7 Repentance and forgiveness 56 2 Human nature and sin 10 Judgement 57 A beautiful world often spoiled 10 God sees everything 57 What is sin? 11 A change of character 59 3 Jesus: life and ministry 16 10 Prayer and worship 62 Who was Jesus? 16 How do I pray? 62 Jesus – a window into God 22 Types of prayer 63 Styles of worship 65 4 Jesus: death and resurrection 26 The Christian calendar 65 Why Jesus’ death is important 26 A practical approach to private Why did Jesus have to die? 27 prayer and public worship 67 Jesus rose from the dead 29 11 The sacraments 72 Jesus ascended into heaven 30 What is a sacrament? 72 5 The Holy Spirit 32 Why seven sacraments? 73 Christianity: a supernatural religion 32 12 Baptism 75 What happens at baptism? 76 The power to change 32 The meaning of baptism 78 6 The Church 38 13 Confirmation 82 A worldwide community 38 Standing up for what you believe 82 The Body of Christ 39 The origins of confirmation 83 One Church 39 The meaning of confirmation 83 Bishops, priests and deacons 41 How is a candidate prepared 7 The creeds 43 for confirmation? 84 The Apostles’ Creed 43 What happens at a confirmation The Nicene Creed 45 service? 84

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14 The Eucharist 87 17 Ordination 107 What happens at the Eucharist? 87 A calling 107 The meaning of the Eucharist 91 18 Anointing the sick 112 15 Marriage 94 What happens at the anointing What happens at a wedding service? 94 of the sick? 113 Marriage is about selfless love 96 19 Life after death 116 ‘Till death us do part’ 97 What is death? 116 16 Confession 100 The Last Judgement 119 Saying sorry 100 Hell 120 What happens in confession? 102 Heaven 120 The meaning of confession 103 Notes and acknowledgements 125

viii What this book is for

In the introduction to this book we compare or say together in a group. You may confirming our faith in Jesus to deciding also like to make up your own prayers to travel through life with a really accurate reflecting what you have learned from map. Each chapter of the book forms part the chapter, and you will find some of the map. When you look at a map, you suggestions for prayer topics at the end have to find your bearings; similarly, it’s of each chapter. The great thing about best to glance through the layout of each making up prayers is that it involves your chapter before you read it properly. feelings as well as your mind. In prayer, Each chapter begins with a story or the whole of your personality can be stories and pictures, which are designed engaged. to provide a bridge between ideas and experiences that are already familiar to you and the Christian beliefs you will To those leading need to find out about. Further factual information is provided in boxes headed groups preparing ‘Christian beliefs’. You can use these for reference or to explore the ideas in for confirmation greater detail. There are more stories and explanations later in the chapter We have aimed in writing this book to to deepen your understanding. make a simple, accessible and attractive Each chapter (except Chapter 11) presentation of what Anglicans believe. concludes with three standard sections: Inevitably, individuals may quibble over details and points of emphasis but we Thinking it through provides you with believe that a coherent exposition of some questions to ask yourself. They can Anglican belief is possible and desirable also be used to open up group discussion. if we are effectively to draw people To answer them, you can turn back and into active, thoughtful and committed look through the chapter but you can also membership of the Church. draw on your own experience. The main practical principle behind the writing of this book is that people Bible study can be used on your own or in need bridges between their own a group. It should help you to understand experience and Christian concepts. These how Christian beliefs are rooted in the are best provided by pictures and stories. Bible. Once contact has been made between the reader and the main Christian concept, For prayer and reflection provides you the group leader can then choose from with a prayer which you may use privately a wide variety of material.

ix WHAT THIS BOOK IS FOR

preparing for confirmation but it will also Preparation for confirmation introduces us to be valuable to those who have already the Christian ‘map’ for our journey through life. gone some way on their personal Christian journey and wish simply to know more about the Christian faith. Experience has shown that it is useful to readers of all ages. We hope that readers will read some or all of the book on their own. Finally, our own experience has led us to believe that the ‘For prayer and reflection’ sections can be particularly rewarding. It is often when a group or individuals come to compose their own prayers that they are able to give personal expression to the Christian beliefs they have studied. Then their hearts as well as their minds become engaged.

Each chapter is laid out in much the A note on the same way, in sections, as described above. The time available and the age second edition and ability of your group will affect how much coverage you can allocate to each For the second edition of the book, we section. have taken the opportunity to update some The book has been designed very much of the stories and examples given in the to be the personal possession of each text, as well as giving the whole book a reader. It will be used particularly by those fresh new design.

x Introduction

When we confirm something we say yes. At confirmation we say yes to Jesus’ call to follow him on our journey through life. We confirm our faith in him. Parents and godparents will usually have said yes for us when we were babies and unable to speak for ourselves at baptism, but confirmation gives us the chance to say yes. We have all had the experience of getting lost. This can happen because we have either no map or an inadequate one, or because our direction finder isn’t working properly. Confirming our faith in Jesus is like deciding to travel through life with a really accurate map or effective direction finder. This book aims to help you become familiar with the main features of the ‘Christian map’. On the contents page you will find its landmarks. Some of these will be familiar to you and others new. Although it will make sense if you read the book on your own, we hope you will share it with Christian beliefs provide a ‘compass’ for others. Just as planning a journey is more Christians. fun when you discuss it with others, so Christianity makes more sense when it’s experienced and lived with other people. We hope also that you will refer back to ‘journey’ picture a bit further: why not see this guide after your confirmation. On confirmation as a time to take stock of long journeys, we have to keep on where you have come from and seek God’s checking our directions. To carry the help in preparing for what lies ahead?

1 Chapter Chapter 11 GOD GOD

‘Do you believe and trust in God the Father?’ ‘I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.’ 1

If you are reading this book you may there was an unseen hand guiding your already believe in God, or you may be life, that coincidences were signs of God, unsure about believing but curious about present through the circumstances and exploring belief. But where did this belief the people you met. or curiosity about belief come from? Some people, like David’s parents, Maybe you were brought up to believe in started to believe in God as a result of a God by your parents, or you have seen crisis. David had been playing with an air God at work in people you respect and rifle and got into trouble with the police. look up to. Maybe you or someone close He became more upset than anyone could to you has been very ill or has died and guess and out of desperation killed himself. this has made you wonder about what His parents were devastated. They felt life means and whether God plays a part their world had come to an end. All their in your life. Maybe you started to believe hopes had been destroyed. Their life in or wondered about God as the Creator became one long nightmare as they were of the world as you looked around at the confronted with reporters and police order and beauty of the natural world. interviews. However, in their despair their Maybe you began to believe in God or to son’s death became a religious experience be curious about God from reading the for both of his parents – they woke up to Bible. Or maybe you started to feel that what was important in life, turned to God,

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began reading the Bible and going to That is one of the reasons why we have church and within a year were confirmed provided suggestions for Bible study in in the Church. this book. We cannot hear the Bible as the living Word of God unless we study How do we it and give it time to speak to us. know God? Through his creation Have you ever felt a sense of awe and God is waiting to enter into a loving wonder at nature – maybe standing under relationship with each of us. He reveals a waterfall or on top of a mountain, or himself in a number of ways. being caught in a thunderstorm? Many people have felt God’s powerful presence Through the Bible and the Church in the world he created. Its beauty and majesty have revealed God’s beauty and The Bible is our main source for majesty to them. understanding how God has acted and how Jesus came into the world to save us. Through experiences in life As we will see in Chapter 8 , the Bible was produced over a very long period. What does it mean to say a person has Therefore, it provides us with a unique a conscience? Have you ever felt your record of how countless generations conscience telling you to do something or experienced God’s presence and actions to stop doing something? Where does your and bore witness to them. sense of right and wrong come from? Christians believe that God inspired the Christians believe that God speaks to different authors of the books of the Bible to people through their conscience. They can write them so that his revelation of himself develop their conscience by learning about should be kept alive for later generations. what the Bible and the Church’s tradition The Church has done this by teach. translating and copying the Bible but also Sometimes we have experiences which by teaching about the Bible and applying it make us stand back and ask ‘Where did afresh to new circumstances. It is a living that come from?’ book kept alive by the living community God speaks to us through our everyday of the Church. life – through the people we meet and the

What words come to mind when you look at this window? What qualities of God has the designer captured in glass? © Aidan McRae Thomson Chapter 1 GOD

things that happen. Sometimes people Christian beliefs about God dismiss these experiences as coincidences

and ignore the fact that God may be  God created the universe . He is involved speaking to us through them. To respond with his world and is in constant interaction well to these experiences, we need to give with it. The story of the Bible is the story of ourselves time to reflect on their meaning salvation history, of how God interacts with – we need time to discern. history to save his people. Sometimes God speaks to people in an unmistakable way. Such people say  God is unique . that they have experienced a conversion in which their lives have been shaken up – God is everywhere (omnipresent). The and turned around. However, for other Bible teaches that there is nowhere outside people their conversion is very gradual his presence: ‘Where can I go from your and may take many years – it is a slow spirit? Or where can I flee from your realization that their values and attitudes presence?’ (Psalm 139.7ff.). are changing and being brought more in – God is all-powerful (omnipotent). God line with God’s wishes for them. will judge all people and will overcome all forces of darkness in the world: ‘I know that Through prayer you can do all things, and that no purpose God is a personal God. We believe that of yours can be thwarted’ (Job 42.2). God speaks to us through prayer. As with – God knows everything (omniscient). He any relationship we need to spend time can see the past, present and future. God together – to talk and listen to each other. fully understands people’s needs and secret This is what prayer is – a time of talking thoughts: ‘O LORd , you have searched me and listening to God. Without prayer the and known me. You know when I sit down relationship would become dry. Prayer is and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts the way we communicate with God. from far away . . . Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORd , you know it completely’ (Psalm 139.1, 2, 4). – God is above space and time (eternal, unchanging). God has always existed and owes his existence to no one: ‘Thus says the L ORd, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the L ORd of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god’ (Isaiah 44.6).

 God is holy and wants people to be holy like himself. The word ‘holy’ describes God’s perfect nature. God sets holy What is going on in this photograph? How can standards for people to live up to – like you tell? If you were able to hear this person the Ten Commandments. speak you would hear only one side of the conversation. In what sense does the person  hear the other side of the conversation? God has different attributes. The Bible uses a number of word pictures to describe

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different attributes of God. God is likened was truly like. Jesus is sometimes described to a shepherd: ‘The L ORd is my shepherd, I as the human window into God. Jesus said: shall not want’ (Psalm 23.1); a rock, shield and ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father’ fortress: ‘The LORd is my rock, my fortress, (John 14.9). and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my  God makes covenants (agreements) with salvation, my stronghold’ (Psalm 18.2); a judge: people. He makes promises to humanity, and ‘for the L ORd is a God of knowledge, and although people break their promises to God by him actions are weighed’ (1 Samuel 2.3); he is faithful in keeping his. God is like the a king: ‘Who would not fear you, O King of loving and forgiving father in the parable of the nations? . . . In all their kingdoms there the Prodigal Son: ‘But while he was still far is no one like you’ (Jeremiah 10.7). off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around  God reveals himself in a number of him and kissed him’ (Luke 15.20). God is ways . God shows people what he is like pictured in Hosea as a generous lover: in through his actions in history: ‘Listen to me spite of people disobeying him and his laws in silence . . . Who has roused a victor from he still loves them. the east, summoned him to his service? He delivers up nations to him, and tramples  God is not just male. Although God is kings under foot; he makes them like dust often referred to in the masculine, Christians with his sword, like driven stubble with his do not believe in a male concept of God. In bow . . . Who has performed and done this, the Bible God is likened both to a father: calling the generations from the beginning? I, ‘The L ORd your God . . . will fight for you, the L ORd, am first, and will be with the last’ just as he did for you in Egypt before your (Isaiah 41.1, 2 and 4). very eyes, and in the wilderness, where you – God reveals himself in the Bible: ‘you saw how the L ORd your God carried you, must understand this, that no prophecy just as one carries a child’ (Deuteronomy of scripture is a matter of one’s own 1.30–31); and a mother: ‘Can a woman forget interpretation, because no prophecy ever her nursing-child, or show no compassion came by human will, but men and women for the child of her womb? Even these moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God’ may forget, yet I will not forget you’ (2 Peter 1.20–21); (Isaiah 49.15).

– God reveals himself through creation: ‘The  God is one being but is also three heavens are telling the glory of God’ (Psalm persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who 19.1–4); ‘Ever since the creation of the world are all equally God. This three-in-one God his eternal power and divine nature, invisible is known as the Trinity. though they are, have been understood and

seen through the things he has made’  We can know God through faith, by (Romans 1.20); putting our trust in him, even though he is – God revealed himself fully in Jesus. Jesus’ greater than words can describe or than we life and teaching showed people what God can imagine.

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In our everyday experience we know What kind of different things which at the same time can be one. For example, water, of God do we ice and steam are different states of the

chemical H2O. The same person can believe in? be a mother, a cousin and a sister all at the same time. God is holy But what do we mean when we say that God is One in three persons? The Latin Light is a symbol which is used to describe word persona (way of being) referred to a God. It points to God’s glory or holiness. Roman actor’s mask, which was changed The word ‘holy’ describes God’s perfect with each role he played. The belief in nature. Christians believe that God made God as Trinity is saying ‘we believe in people and God wants them to be holy one God who exists and works in three too. This is why God has said that there ways’. Christians experience God in three is a right way to live. God has set holy distinct personal ways. standards, not to make life miserable and The doctrine of the Trinity means that hard but to allow love and happiness to in his own being God can be likened to grow. The Christian way of life is called a communion of persons, eternally linked holiness. A Christian is made whole by by love. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are knowing God. eternally united by love, and Scripture says that ‘God is love’ (1 John 4.8). That is why God is Trinity when we truly love others, then we are We believe in one God who reveals most like God. himself in three distinct persons: as the Father who created the world, as the A creator God Son who came to bring forgiveness and James Weldon Johnson, an American author rescue humanity, and as the Holy Spirit and early civil rights activist, describes the who is the Spirit of God filling people creation of the world in a poem: with love, joy and peace and making them more like Christ. Christians refer And God stepped out on space, to the three-in-one nature of God as the And he looked around and said: Trinity. I’m lonely – We find a very early reference to the I’ll make me a world . . . three-in-one nature of God in the last (From ‘The Creation’)2 words of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian Church: ‘The grace of the We believe that God created the world out Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the of love and that evidence of his creating fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you can be found in the beauty and detail of all’ (2 Corinthians 13.13, GNB). nature.

6 Chapter 1 GOD But what about suffering?

The existence of suffering in the world is the greatest obstacle preventing people from believing in a loving God. How do you explain belief in God in the face of so much suffering? Christians have debated this question down the centuries. In one sense suffering is a mystery. When Job questioned God about the existence of suffering, God asked him: ‘Who are you to question my wisdom with your ignorant, empty words?’ (Job 38.2, GNB). One partial way to understand the problem of suffering is to recognize that a lot of it can be traced to the fact that people have rebelled against God’s wishes for them. Suffering is the result of their sin – their hatred of one another, their thoughtlessness towards the environment and the animal world. Not all suffering, however, is due to human sin. Another way is to explore the nature How are the three persons of the Trinity of God, to ask: ‘Would it help if God represented here? What message do you think intervened every time someone was the painter El Greco is trying to give? suffering?’ In his book Why Do People Suffer? James Jones, a Church of England bishop, recalls an incident from his own God is the sea in which I swim, the life. As you read it, imagine that the father atmosphere in which I breathe, the reality is God and the child is each of us in our in which I move. I cannot find the tiniest suffering. thing which does not speak to me of Him, which is not somehow His image, His I remember once walking past the school message, His call, His smile. at the end of our road. On the other side (Carlo Carretto, Love is for Living)3 of the six-foot wall I could hear a small

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child crying inconsolably. A teacher was others could come near to her and help trying to comfort her but with little her.4 immediate success. Like any parent, the sound of a child sobbing stirred my In the end, there is no answer to the heart. problem of suffering that will fully As I walked on down the road, the satisfy our reason. Perhaps the most child’s crying ringing in my ears, I stopped important thing to say is that as dead in my tracks as I realized that the Christians we do not believe that God child who was in tears was my own wills our suffering. He does not sit on a daughter. Part of me wanted to vault over throne far away, deciding which of us the wall and rescue her – to tell her that it will suffer today. On the contrary, the was all right, that Daddy was here and cross of Jesus means that God himself she’d be OK now. But another part of shares our suffering. He suffers alongside me knew that I should do nothing of the us. (See Chapter 4, ‘Jesus: death and kind – that I had to leave her so that resurrection’.)

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FOR PRAYER Thinking it through & REFLECTION

• Think about how you came to believe God be in my head in God. What evidence is there of God’s and in my understanding. presence in the world? God be in my eyes and in my looking. • What do you understand prayer to be? God be in my mouth Do you think that God answers prayers? and in my speaking. God be in my heart • How might James Jones’ account of the and in my thinking. father and his child help you to believe in God be at mine end a loving God in the face of suffering? and at my departing.

Bible study Some prayer topics

Read the following descriptions of A prayer of thanks for all the good things God in the Bible: God has created.

Deuteronomy 32.6, 10 To say sorry for all the times when you Isaiah 49.14–15 have turned away from God and God’s Psalm 18.2 will for your life. 1 Timothy 6.15 1 Corinthians 4.5 To ask God to come into the situation you find yourself in at the moment – to • Is God described in terms of gender ask for God’s help, protection and (i.e. male or female)? What does this say guidance. about God?

• What do these descriptions say about God’s relationship to people?

9 WHAT THIS BOOK IS FOR