Confirmation and Reception

In Confirmation, after a time of reflection and instruction, an adolescent or an adult makes a public affirmation of his or her responsibilities as a member of the Body of Christ.  The Bishop lays hands upon those being confirmed as the sacramental sign of the power of the Holy Spirit.  Persons who have been baptized in other Christian communions but have not received a sacramental laying-on-of-hands of a Bishop and who now wish to live the Christian life in the Episcopal Church, may be presented for Confirmation. 

Matrimony

The marriage of two people is a holy union.  It begins with your desire to form a lasting partnership with another person in God’s love.  A wedding is a sacred ritual that celebrates your desire to enter a lifelong relationship. By uniting within the context of a faith community, you recognize that God is active in the love you feel for one another.  You make your vows before God and the gathered community of family, friends, and the Church, and receive the grace and blessing of God to help you fulfill your vows.  Your marriage is a sacrament.  It is an outward and visible sign of God’s grace bringing you together and nurturing the love you feel for each other.

The wedding service comes from the Book of Common Prayer.  Arrangements for Holy Matrimony are made with the Rector.

Reconciliation

Reconciliation, or Confession, as it is often called, is a recognition of the fact that all sins that have ever been or ever will be committed have already been forgiven by God on the cross of Jesus Christ.  Reconciliation is the sacrament in which forgiveness is personalized for a parishioner who acknowledges his or her own sinfulness, is penitent, and seeks the specific absolution of God as mediated through the Church.

Please contact a member of the clergy if you need assistance.

Funerals and Memorial Services

The liturgy for the dead is an Easter liturgy.  It finds all meaning in the resurrection.  Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we, too, shall be raised. The liturgy is characterized by joy, in the certainty that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans, 8).