The Relationship of Baptism and Confirmation

Abstract This chapter surveys Anglican understandings of Christian initiation, especially the meanings and purposes of confirmation and its relationship to baptism, and the significance of Christian initiation in different historical and cultural contexts. After examining the traditional Anglican pattern of initiation—baptism, catechesis, confirmation, admission to communion—the chapter considers practices of confirmation over the centuries and the different understandings that Anglicans have held. A survey of confirmation in recent Anglican Prayer Books shows that confirmation by a bishop continues to be a required or expected part of initiation in nearly all Anglican churches, and that confirmation in most is understood as a strengthening by the Spirit for Christian discipleship and ministry.