I've been prompted to remember my confirmation, 25 years ago. Interestingly, the ONLY thing I remember about the day was the overriding feeling of disappointment that my youth group leader, such a significant person in my faith journey, had not acknowledged it. She was away, which I knew, but I was surprised she'd not sent a card or anything. As I'm not of the view that we need folk in a hierarchy to connect us to God, I don't remember anything about the Bishop, or the moment of confirmation, or my first communion.
When we got back to the house afterwards, my mum produced a pile of cards that had arrived during the week, including a perfect one from said person, and I then was kicking myself for letting the service be spoiled. In my present role as mum, whenever birthday cards come for the kids I also file them away, but first I check with the kids that that's what they want. There's something about "gatekeeping" that seems significant - it can impact upon us even when the intentions are good.
The only thing I can recall about my transferring into membership of the Methodist church was worrying how long I would be expected to stand up for (I'd just discovered I was pregnant). In many ways I'm a fan of these kinds of services - primarily because I think celebrating is sooooooo important. Celebrating our lives, celebrating our connections, celebrating each other. If we have to create formal occasions to make such celebrating acceptable then so be it. But in my experience, it is the little celebrations of the tiny wonders that mean most to me. Today I shall be celebrating connections old and new - I'm hoping to whip through my to do list so I can go and have a coffee with someone I hit it off with when on her doorstep for Christian Aid Week. Whatever it is you celebrate today, I hope you can do so fully :)
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