Kearney UMC Confirmation

Kearney United Methodist Church had its confirmation service for this year’s class of confirmands this morning.

Sixteen confirmands, including my nephew Isaac Gillespie, were presented. The service was the conclusion of a two-year program where they met regularly to review and discuss their understanding of their faith.

The service began with some congregational singing, which Lina Witulski, an exchange student staying with Isaac’s family this year, helped to lead.

That followed with a presentation of each confirmand and their parents, and then the questions to the confirmands. The pastor prefaced the questions by mentioning that the Methodist tradition believed in the use of questions and answers to help us know what we think and believe. The questions included questions about God and Jesus that were responded to with recitations of faith from the Apostles’ Creed.

In the service there was another moment that we as a family had become used to from Kearney confirmations: the confirmation video. Isaac is the third and youngest child of his family, so we had seen two other of these confirmation videos beforehand — a sort of music video encapsulating the journey of the confirmands through their two years and what it meant to them.

After that each of the confirmands had their own personal time of commitment where they came to the front and kneeled while their family prayed with them, and then they were presented with their confirmation stole.  During Isaac’s time his sister Chloe carried a picture of his sister Sofia up with the family, so everyone knew that she was there in heart from Latvia (where she is spending the year as an exchange student).

After all the confirmands had their personal moments of commitment and prayer, My sister-in-law, Isaac’s mother, Carolyn Gillespie, made a presentation of appreciation from the confirmands’ parents to the leaders of the confirmation classes. She asked them how long they had been involved with the confirmation classes — either 7 or 8 years for each of them — and mentioned that for the past 6 years they had had one of her kids with them.

There was also a time where the pastor gave his charge to the confirmands and the congregation, and then they recited the affirmation of membership and were welcomed as members of the church.

After the service the confirmands had a few group pictures, and then went to celebrate with family and friends. We went to the Gillespies where they provided a nice sandwich buffet and cake, and we all got to express our wishes for Isaacs future with the presentation of our cards and gifts.

Lina’s gift to Isaac was something that came from her confirmation in Germany, a “tradition” that we were able to share in — A board with sayings on it (in Isaac’s case fact — since he likes to share facts all the time) — where we each were able to write something we wished for Isaac in his future.