Posted on: 12th August 2025

Each year, about ten thousand people do it, but no one has ever done it at the Crypt…ever…and we have been going ninety-five years this year.

If you are getting concerned about what I am talking about, don’t get too worried! Each year in the Church of England alone, around ten thousand people make the brave step of being confirmed, which is a church service where candidates have the opportunity to reaffirm their baptism promises for themselves as an act of commitment in their journey of following God in their lives. My confirmation took place some thirty-six years ago at St Martin’s Knowle in Bristol, and on my bookshelf at home, there is still the ASB (Alternative Service Book – at the time the modern version of the Book of Common Prayer) that I was given on the evening as a gift from my parish priest. My memories of the evening now are a little hazy, but what I do recall vividly is the sense of journeying towards confirmation with my university friends, and then the weight of the Bishop’s hands on my head as he prayed over me.

But never, never has the Crypt held a confirmation service…until a few weeks ago, when Bishop Arun (the Bishop of Kirkstall) came and confirmed six members of staff and sixteen of our Growing Rooms cohort (women and men on our residential addiction recovery programme). Twenty-two beautiful, wonderful souls making their promises before God. As you can imagine, it was a service charged with prayer, joy and the Holy Spirit. What I was moved by the most was seeing each person kneel before the Bishop and the sense of the Holy Spirit being prayed deep into each person’s soul.

Did each person feel different afterwards? Only they could tell you that, but what I noticed was they looked different, they looked radiant, and that was such a privilege and joy to behold. I was drawn back to some words of our founder, our beloved Don Robins. He once wrote about what a Christian looks like, saying: “Are you prepared to be that kind of person who will give to Christ unquestioning obedience and unswerving love. Because if you are, you are the woman or the man that the world is waiting for.” 

Ninety-five years later, it was such a privilege to be there to witness the confirmation of people the world is waiting for. To God be the glory, now and evermore.

By Reverend Andy Muckle, St George's Crype