As you know, the Bishop asks people being baptized, confirmed, received or reaffirming their vows to write him a letter about their decision and their journey. I think that sponsors should write a letter too, but I suspect we all would say variations on the same theme. So, here is mine.
I’m fortunate enough to be the sponsor of an adult seeking confirmation. His journey is intentional, thoughtful, curious, questioning and in making this mature affirmation of faith he acknowledges his past, his present and his future. He reminds me of what it means to be in awe of the power and the mystery of God and Christ, and what it might mean to open ourselves to that awe and mystery, to trust that the Good News really is good news. He reminds me of what I perhaps did not realize in my own confirmation and what I have often forgotten since then.
I’ve been involved with some denomination all my life I guess, and have been an Episcopalian since Easter Eve, 1978. It was and is an easy thing to be involved in the life of the church, in the large and small things necessary to be a part of the community and its mission, and in my case particularly the almost invisible work of the altar guild. Nothing has formed me more than the quotidian needs and even mundaneness of those tasks.
The opportunity to be a sponsor, to be reminded of the promises and transformative power of our faith, to remember Whom it is we follow and why, calls us to remember beyond the details, to see with eyes opened again to the deeper reality and mystery of our belief. Two wonderful images have been given to me in the past weeks. Dean Thomason, in his very excellent Palm Sunday sermon, spoke of that day as a portal to Holy Week, and for me sponsorship, walking beside a seeker, is also such a portal. Recently I was talking to a priest in this diocese who is in deep conversation with a young parishioner about the Trinity. This parishioner said that the conversation was “introducing him to God.” That wonderful phrase points to an almost inconceivable blessing. We sponsors also have a part in introducing someone to God, and in so doing to renew and deepen our own relationship. Indeed a responsibility and indeed a blessing.
Sue Tait, Librarian
Resource Center
email: resource@ecww.org
phone: 206-325-4200, ext. 2043 or 1-888-488-4978, ext. 2043
