> First communion, as a small child, is sort of the next step, after you've learned the basics of what you're supposed to believe in. Confirmation seems to be the Roman Catholic equivalent of the baptism others have described here; it is when you consciously, as an adult, make the decision to become a spiritual member of the church.

I grew up in a United Church of Christ denomination, and only once do I remember anyone older than an infant getting baptised. Baptism was, as far as I knew, very similar to Brunnen-G's explanation of the Roman Catholic ceremony- it was done by the parents, to "introduce" the child to the church, as it were, and the congregation in turn promises to be a second family to the child and to teach him and nurture him. Baptism as I understood it was never portrayed as something one chose for himself.

Confirmation was the ceremony where we declared our intentions to accept Christ. In my church, though I don't know how it was done in other denominations, once you were in seventh grade you were in the Confirmation class. (Assuming, of course, that you had worked your way through the sunday School program.) The class was supposed to be a sort-of-in-depth study into the basic tenents of the faith, with the ultimate goal being that the students would decide that the faith is right for them. At the end of the class there was a confirmation ceremony where we declared our faith to the congragation and officially became voting members of the church. Tradidtionally, the first communion was also held then, but our church was pretty lax in keeping non-confirmed children from taking communion.

Theoretically, I suppose, one could choose not to be confirmed at the end of the class, though I don't know anyone who ever did. But I'm fairly certain that most of the kids confirmed didn't actually *believe* in what they were saying. I know I didn't. I also found it rather silly that the church should define an arbitrary age at which a child could be allowed to declare his faith. Personally, I was forced into it way too early- I wasn't ready to accept Christ until a year and a half ago. But I know there are also children who are ready *way* before they get to seventh grade.

And now I remember a question I thought of while I was beginning this post- Does anyone know what is the difference between baptism and christening? I remember the terms being used interchangably, but perhaps what I knew as baptism was what other denominations call christening.

And one last thing- Is it baptizm or baptism? Baptized or baptised? And do you realize how silly "bapt" looks when you've used it like fifteen times in one post?

~Mina "haven't posted anything this long in a long time" moon