As youth move toward confirmation, their first public profession of their Baptism, include training to be Communion servers in confirmation classes. On the day of confirmation, as you move into the Communion service with intinction, let the confirmands serve Communion in pairs. Give the congregation freedom to go to the station they choose, so that parents and siblings might receive Communion from their confirmand family member.

Great Thanksgiving for Confirmation Sunday, Option One

The Lord is with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them up to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is right and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Almighty God. You claim us as your people, bathe us in forgiveness through Baptism, and draw us together into your church. You call us to be your royal priesthood, a holy people, and you give us this holy meal as food for our journey. Today these confirmands profess their faith and your presence in their journey. Today they claim your gracious love for themselves and seek to live into a deeper and mature faith. Give them your grace and peace, as they and we join with your people on earth and all the company of heaven to praise your name:
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest!
Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest!
Holy are you and blessed is Jesus Christ, who came to live among us. As a young person, Jesus traveled with his family to Jerusalem, then stayed behind in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and asking questions. Jesus grew in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor, setting us an example of spiritual growth. He calls us now to walk in God’s ways on a journey of faith. On the night before his own journey in the flesh ended, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said to his disciples, “This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way Jesus took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” In remembrance of Jesus Christ’s gracious acts on our behalf, we offer ourselves to you, O God, as we proclaim the promises of faith:
Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.
Pour out your Holy Spirit on all gathered here and on these gifts of bread and cup. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ Jesus, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed and reconciling.
Through Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit,
all honor and glory is yours, Holy God, now and forever. Amen.

Great Thanksgiving for Confirmation Sunday, Option Two

We gather around this table today, Almighty God, to give you thanks. You claim us as your people, bathe us in forgiveness through Baptism, and draw us together into your church. You call us to be your royal priesthood, a holy people, and you give us this holy meal as food for our journey. Today these confirmands profess their faith and your presence in their journey. Today they claim your gracious love for themselves and seek to live into a deeper and mature faith. Give them your grace and peace. Now we join together to remember and experience anew the presence of the risen Christ in our midst at this table. We give thanks for the gracious life of Jesus: teaching and healing, challenging and loving, dying and rising. As we eat this bread and drink of this cup, pour out your Holy Spirit on us, that we may go forth to live as those claimed by you, your holy people, spreading holiness and wholeness in your world this day. To God be the glory now and forever! Amen.

Resources for Confirmation

Congregational songs for singing during the distribution
“I Come with Joy” by Brian Wren
“In the Singing” by Shirley Erena Murray and Carlton R. Young
“Life-giving Bread” by Rick Manalo
“Take Our Bread” by Joe Wise
“Water, River, Spirit, Grace” by Thomas H. Troeger and O. I. Cricket Harrison
“We Are the Church” by Richard Avery and Donald Marsh

Table dismissals

• Go forth to live as those claimed by God.
• You have been called to be a royal priesthood.
• Live as God’s holy people in the world.
• Go forth as forgiven and beloved people, that God may be known in the world.

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excerpt from: Just in Time! Communion Services by Robin Knowles Wallace. Copyright©2006 by Abingdon Press. Used with permission.