Gaps in conventional schooling are increasingly filled by supplementary courses and schools. Parents are hopeful when young people are willing to avail themselves of chances to learn creatively, so that, while “training for the job”, they are acquiring the confidence to make astonishingly new connections between ideas and processes. Learning ideally offers the joy of discovery of the unpredictably “useful”.
Confirmation classes should be seen in that light: discovery of the unpredictably useful. Religion, faith, and morality are hugely significant factors in our modern life, whether or not we acknowledge their roles and complexities. Where and when do we make time for thinking and talking about such matters? How are religion and faith part of our history – our politics, culture, art, science, literature, music, language? Though young people generally lack a strongly-based religious-study background, they need only a starting point to connect with now. We cannot confirm what we do not know. We learn best when we seek answers to questions, when the process of that learning makes sense to us.
Confirmation classes are spread out over the course of the school year. There is only time for an overview, an outline, of what there is to know.
The rest is up to the learner to pursue. He or she will be free to choose the course and the guides for the journey.
St. Andrew’s Estonian Congregation invites interested students to come to Confirmation classes beginning October 20, after the 11:00 a.m. service