The first three confirmations of 2022 took place on 13th March in St Luke’s Church, Douglas, on 20th March in St Colman’s Cathedral, Cloyne and on 3rd April in Saint Peter’s, Bandon. For the last 23 years, the Bishop has celebrated Confirmations in parishes in the Easter Seasons, but this year is different, he explains:

We have nearly twice as many young people and adults who want to be confirmed this year as many of the other years in my time here as Bishop. As far as I can tell it’s not a backlog from the postponed Confirmations of the pandemic, although there may be some of those. We simply have a a greater than usual number of people in the Diocese being presented for Confirmation this year, so I want to thank those parishes and families who have been willing to schedule Confirmations, unusually for me, in Lent. We are back on track now and a large number of Confirmation Services are scheduled throughout the Easter Season until the end of June.

It is wonderful to be worshipping with everyone in person once again and being able to sing, while, all the time, keeping in mind that precautions still have to be taken as the pandemic is still in full force.

The Ven. Adrian Wilkinson, Archdeacon of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, and Rector of Douglas Union, commented:

We had twenty young people and two adults confirmed in St Luke’s on 13th March. This confirmation group was made up of young teenagers, some older teenagers, as well as the two adults. It was moving to see the candidates all make the same profession of faith despite being at different stages in life.

The Very Rev. Susan Green, Dean of Cloyne and Rector of Cloyne Union, writes:

A large congregation gathered in St Colman’s Cathedral Cloyne for a Confirmation Service on Sunday March 20th. Sixteen young people were confirmed by Bishop Paul Colton. The group had been prepared by myself and Canon Andrew Orr, and included young people from Cloyne and Youghal Unions of Parishes. The service was followed by refreshments, kindly provided by Midleton College and during which donations were made to the Red Cross.

Bishop Colton preached memorably on the theme of Growing Up and the need to develop a grown up faith, he illustrated this with a child’s picture book and a newspaper. The first reading was read by one of the candidates, Miriam Ahemefula and the prayers were led by our lay reader Alan Clohessey. The hymns for the service included ‘I the Lord of Sea and Sky’ and ‘Will you come and Follow me’, and were played by Eoin O’Callaghan.

The Rev. Canon Denis MacCarthy, Rector of Bandon Union, writes:

A little over three hundred people attended the Confirmation Service in St. Peter’s Church, Bandon to witness and support twenty five young people who came forward for confirmation. Those confirmed also included two from St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, who were presented by the Very Revd Nigel Dunne, Dean of Cork, and two from Ballydehob who were presented by their Rector, the Rev. Steve McCann.

It was a great family occasion and the biggest congregation we had since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. It was great to see so many familiar faces again and chat with some people we hadn’t met in a while.