Confirmed - Anglican View

Anglican View

The 16th Century Thirty-Nine Articles list confirmation among those rites "commonly called Sacraments" which are "not to be counted for Sacraments of the Gospel" (a term meaning Baptism and the Holy Eucharist), as they were not directly instituted by Christ with a specific matter and form, and they are not generally necessary to salvation. The language of the Articles has led some to deny that confirmation and the other rites are sacraments at all; however, "commonly called Sacraments" does not mean "wrongly called Sacraments". Today, many Anglicans, especially Anglo-Catholics, count it as one of seven sacraments. This is the official view in several Anglican Provinces. Anglicans are unique in Christianity in that only bishops may administer confirmation, unlike the Roman Catholic Church where, in the Latin Rite, confirmation conferred by a priest is valid "if he has the faculty to do so, either from the general law or by way of a special grant from the competent authority", and, in the Eastern Rites, confirmation is usually administered by a priest immediately after baptism, as is the practice also of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The renewal of the baptismal vows, which is part of the Anglican confirmation service, is in no way necessary to confirmation and can be done more than once. The unfortunate phrase 'ratify and confirm' applied to the vows since 1552 (but altered in the 1928 revision to 'ratify and confess') has led to the common error that confirmation is merely the renewal of baptismal vows. (If it were, there would be no need for the presence of a bishop.) When confirmation is given early, candidates may be asked to make a fresh renewal of vows when they approach adult life at about eighteen." Anglican doctrine thus differs from Lutheran. In Anglicanism, the patron saint of Confirmation is St. Uriel the Archangel.