Confirmation of a Daughter
Posted by Mark on February 16, 2006
My daughter Lexi was confirmed last night in our local Episcopal Church. She stood with 65 others, both adolescents and adults, and proudly professed her faith in Christ and joined the Church of her own free will. This is what she said, from The Book of Common Prayer:
The Bishop asks the candidates
Do you reaffirm your renunciation of evil?
Candidate I do.
Bishop
Do you renew your commitment to Jesus Christ?
Candidate I do, and with God’s grace I will follow him as my Savior and Lord.
After a version of the Nicene Creed, the Bishop says this, as he laid his hands on my daughter’s head:
Strengthen, O Lord, your servant Alexis with your Holy Spirit; empower her for your service; and sustain her all the days of her life. Amen.
Our local Episcopal Church stands out, especially in the Diocese of Chicago. We are conservative, one of the few in the Diocese, and one of the very few within our denomination. My daughter joined a denomination in crisis, but a local Church body that is growing by leaps and bounds. She joined a Denomination on the verge of splitting, unless there is major change within the leadership. The next stage of the looming crisis will be this summer, when the National Convention meets.
A former pastor of my church has produced a remarkable presentation detailing how the ECUSA came to the place it finds itself. It’s a journey that goes well beyond the current debate on homosexuality and the priesthood. It’s a journey that may very well mean a fork in the road, a split between those like my Church who choose to hold to the faith given, and those who choose a different road, which leads to apostasy and heresy. I attended my daughter’s confirmation with a mixture of pride and foreboding. Pride in her decision to stand for Christ, and foreboding for the choices that lie ahead for our troubled denomination.
February 16, 2006 at 5:49 am
Mark,
Congratulations to your daughter and the rest of your family.
Your church and its members are to be commended. It’s very difficult to hold to one’s beliefs on a day to day basis, let alone a situation in which your church may be splitting off and going its own way. Best of luck to you and the other members.
February 16, 2006 at 7:18 am
Well Done, Alexis! Much happiness to the whole family on the occasion of a life committed to the faithful service of the Lord!
It is not easy to be a young lady in the world today.. to do well.. in a world full of mediocres. It is not easy to stand on the Truths of Jesus Christ, when the world stands in direct opposition.
No.. it is not easy.. but it is also not impossible.
It is my heart’s hope, that Alexis will always be a lady like to Sarah, to Mary the Mother of Jesus.. a woman who is faithful.. trusting.. a woman of the Word, not as a hearer only but a doer of the Word.
The world needs the hope of Jesus Christ.. young ladies NEED to find their hope and their self-esteem in their Creator who knows them best.. may Alexis lead the way with all of our friends and contemporaries! :0)
May God’s richest blessings follow her all the days of her life.
February 16, 2006 at 7:55 am
Congratulations to Lexi and you, Mark. You must be very proud.
February 16, 2006 at 9:05 am
Congratulations Mark and to your daughter Lexi!
Episcopalians rock.
February 17, 2006 at 12:21 am
Mark…It was a wonderful night at church last night and such a blessing for me as your priest/pastor to present Lexi and the others to Bishop Little of Northern Indiana…they grow up fast! Did you know two of the adults confirmed were baptized as adults at ST. Mark’s?
Mark Tusken
February 17, 2006 at 10:27 am
Thanks to everyone. Lexi read the comments, and thought they were great. Mark Tusken is a great priest. It’s him, and Godly men like him, that continue to provide hope for a denomination in deep trouble.