Confirmation Service

[IncenseTom]

I hope everyone is feeling suitably refreshed after the Triduum liturgies.

At the end of May our Parish is hosting a Confirmation service for the Deanery. This will not be a Mass (sadly) as it is felt the service would be too long. Last year, at a neighbouring parish there were around 75 people confirmed and it took quite a while, and I would reckon it'll be similar this year.
I was asked to play the organ last year but had no input into the music - the 'host' parish had decided to have endless hymn after hymn during the confirmations.
However, the crowd got a bit restless and people were talking. It was all rather unprayerful really.
My PP is determined that we will do a better job. He had suggested reciting the Rosary during the confirmations, perhaps with an antiphon sung, or some organ music between each decade.
Obviously a hymn at the beginning and end.
Just wondering what others do and if anyone has any suggestions. We have a choir, but they don't/ can't (forgive me) sing in harmony, but they can manage psalms and chant rather well with a bit of practice.

Thanks!

[Nick Baty]

Can't resist asking the question: What on earth has the rosary to do with confirmation?

[alan29]

I have to wonder what sort of preparation preceded the confirmation last year, that people thought it was OK to chatter.
However we generally let a couple happen with no music so that people can hear what is being said to the candidates. Then we mix sung music (simple stuff that unchurched people can join in with) and gentle background playing. It seems to work. If chattering starts we usually stop the music and let the silence do its work

[musicus]

Surely the conferring of the sacrament (and, by association, the candidates) should be the focus of everyone's prayerful attention? The number of candidates is irrelevant. IMHO, hymns, though not ideal, are at least communal; the praying of the rosary arguably less so. I find that cantor-led music can work quite well at these big celebrations: there is a visual "draw" towards the front, which will encompass the sacramental action, and people are to some extent engaged in the music.

It also occurs to me that people who are likely to chat during the ceremonies are much less likely to be pray-ers of the rosary, whatever the priests might imagine.

[docmattc]

Something which is pertinent to the rite it is accompanying is essential here. The congregation should be joined in prayer for the confirmands during their confirmation. Anything which smacks of keeping the crowd quiet while the Bishop gets on with working his way along the production line won't work. (Although with so many confirmands it will be difficult to avoid the impression of a production line). The conferring of the sacrament is the high point of this service, and it shouldn't be the case that it seems to be something to be got through, or something that the Bishop does while the congregation are entertained with other things.

I think I have said previously that I've used Martin Barry's antiphon "O redeemer hear our prayer" interspersed with verses of Veni Creator (plainsong) to great effect during confirmation. Settings of Ps 104 and other setting of Veni Creator (Hurd, Taize, Come Holy Ghost)

Maybe intersperse musical items with appropriate passage from Scripture, Acts 2, Joel 2, Psalm 104. But this must be done carefully so as not to create the impression that there is a reading, during which the bishop is quietly getting on with confirmations.

With so many confirmands, and the unavoidable issue that many will be 'being done', you have your work cut out for you Tom. There will inevitably be chatter starting once "our Jimmy has been done" whan the family starts to get board and turn their thoughts towards the party.
Given what usually happens after Confirmation, perhaps the most appropriate piece of music might be "wish me luck as you wave me goodbye .


- While typing Musicus and Alan29 have commented. I think we concur.

[Peter Jones]

You could always suggest a return to the medieval practice of the Bishop going around the deanery on horseback and candidates flocking to him at pre-arranged stations ........ that lets the musicians off the hook.

+ George Patrick Dwyer had a tendency to disregard whatever musicians had planned - and make abrupt, stentorian and forceful demands for a decade of the Rosary as the whim took him.

[MaryR]

As alan29 says, it's good to allow one or two take place without music, so people can hear what's being said. After that, I have to say that I think it's pretty essential to 'cover' all the confirmations with music to deter the chatterers. The problem is that so many people come along to support who don't come to church regularly. No matter what requests are made before the start of the service, the chatter inevitably begins if there is a period of quiet, and the only way to quell it, in my experience, is to keep the music going.

At our parish, the choir usually sings Martin Barry's Wisdom Come Softly to begin ((a) because it fits, (b) because there aren't that many opportunities to sing it in a year, and (c) because it's a choir favourite!), then perhaps a congregational hymn and then something that can be extended or truncated as necessary. Christopher Walker's Veni Sancte Spiritus works really well. You can sing it with or without the verses over the top and it can go on for as long as necessary. Or there are several Psallite pieces that would work. With any of these processional songs, you can vary the dynamics, and have musical interludes to make them more interesting, but they just cover the action, so you don't have the Bishop waiting for the choir to finish singing, long after the confirmations have ended.

[nazard]

Oh dear, in a few years time I can see this descending to a dozen or so extraordinary ministers of confirmation distributed around the church "doing" a few each.

I have seen confirmations done by priests on behalf of the Bishop - might this not be a better solution? Then you could have several reasonably sized ceremonies. The Bishop could do the confirmations on his regular (if not exactly frequent) parish visitations.

[John Ainslie]

However we generally let a couple happen with no music so that people can hear what is being said to the candidates. Then we mix sung music (simple stuff that unchurched people can join in with) and gentle background playing. It seems to work. If chattering starts we usually stop the music and let the silence do its work

This is very sane advice, in my experience. Chattering at confirmation is, I fear, a widespread problem because of the proportion of non-churchgoers present on this occasion. Upping the volume of the music simply ups the chattering.

The same problem occurs during Communion at confirmations. At one, the bishop (+Vincent when he was auxiliary in Westminster) stopped, put down the ciborium on the altar and waited till the chat subsided, then gently catechised the people on why they should be quiet before resuming distribution of Communion.

[IncenseTom]

Thankyou all for the advice.

I agree, Praying the Rosary might feel a bit disconnected from the Sacrament of Confirmation - a spiritual 'filler'.
I'll have a chat with the PP and try a few of the suggestions out with the choir - I think they will certainly go for the idea of a refrain for the congregation and choir verses.

Yes, I remember when I was confirmed the Bishop (+Ambrose Griffiths) used to do all the confirmations in one parish, but only every 4 years or so, but at least it was a decent number of candidates. Recent confirmations at my home parish the H&N Diocese have been carried out by the Episcopal Vicar of our Deanery.
Here in the Leeds Diocese (where I now live) Bishop Arthur seems to favour an annual celebration of Confirmation but for everyone of the right age in the Deanery, and swapping the host parish each year. Each to his own!

Thanks again for all the help - i'll let you know how we get on!

[IncenseTom]

Just to update you all. The PP gave me a list of what will be happening today. He stuck with the rosary idea, but I reckon I could still get a choir piece in somewhere. Anyway, for info:

Opening hymn - Come down O love divine

Psalm - Send forth your spirit O Lord
Usual Gospel Acclamation (GABG etc)

During the Confirmations - The Holy Rosary

1) The Resurrection
Hymn - Alleluia, Alleluia, give thanks to the Risen Lord
Intention
1st Decade
2) The Ascension
Hymn - The Head that once was crowned with thornes
Intention
2nd decade
3) Pentecost
Hymn - Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on me
Intention
3rd decade
4) The Assumption
Hymn - Holy Virgin by God's decree
Intention
4th decade
5) Coronation of the BVM
Hymn - Regina Caeli
Intention
5th decade

General intercessions
Our Father
Concluding prayer
Solemn blessing

Final hymn - Thine be the Glory

[Southern Comfort]

You could always suggest a return to the medieval practice of the Bishop going around the deanery on horseback and candidates flocking to him at pre-arranged stations ........ that lets the musicians off the hook.

Not quite, perhaps. Don't forget the mediaeval practice of the Diocesan Cantor going round on horseback and preparing the way for the Bishop by teaching the local musicians their stuff. Bit like John the Baptist, I suppose.

[docmattc]

We have parish confirmations this Thursday evening. This morning the whole parish were invited to attend. Unfortunately this was not to support those members of our community on whom the sacrament will be conferred (I don't know how many or who they are) but to make sure there will be plenty of bums on seats to make the place look full for the first visit of our new auxilliary.