Confirmation Days includes visits to other faiths, worship with Bishop Schnase
Bishop Robert Schnase offers communion to a Conference Council on Youth Ministries member who helped lead confirmation days.
United Methodist youth participating in confirmation days prepare to enter the Cathedral Basilica.
Students tour the Basilica in St. Louis.
Confirnands have a small group time in the outdoor sanctuary at Green Trails.
Everyone knows the Catholic church is big in St. Louis. No where is it’s size more represented in a concrete (or in this case, marble) way as it is in the Cathedral Basilica. You could fit most churches inside the sanctuary of this immense house of worship, even with their steeples. The cathedral was on of several stops for the young United Methodists who participated in Confirmation Days with the Bishop in the St. Louis area February 19-20.
Beverly Boehmer, Missouri Conference youth leader, has always included visits to other faith traditions as part of her confirmation classes.
“Theses other denominations are part of our history,” Boehmer said of the Catholic church, and of the Jewish synagogue the group had visited the night before.
“We all learn that Jesus was a Jew, but it makes it more real when you visit a Jewish synagogue, meet with the people there, and experience worship with them.”
The tour included the attending a service at United Hebrew Shabbat, visiting the Cathedral Basilica, attending a mass at the old Cathedral in St. Louis, and having lunch at Centenary UMC in St. Louis and learning about their homeless ministry. The Kansas City days, one week later, had a similar schedule.
Part of the weekend schedule includes a worship service and communion with Missouri Bishop Robert Schnase. For the St. Louis weekend, this took place at Green Trails UMC in Chesterfield, the church where the youth spent the night. Bishop Schnase introduced himself to the group on Saturday morning by explaining a little bit about what it means to a be a Bishop.
“I’m a pastor to the pastors that are serving the 883 United Methodist churches in Missouri,” he said. “I’m also the administrator for them, kind of like the way that the principals in your schools are administrators for the teachers in the schools.”
Bishop Schnase spoke of watching the Olympics, and how easy the athletes make their performances look.
“It looks so easy because they work so hard,” he said. “They all felt incompetent and awkward at some point. But they kept repeating and practicing what they were doing until it felt natural.”
Bishop Schnase asked the youth to think about someone who they admire for the person they are; a positive person full of life who makes serving others seem so natural and so easy.
“They also became that way through practice and hard work,” Bishop Schnase said.
Drawing on the scripture that was the theme of the event (Acts 9, verses 3-5), Bishop Schnase noted that Paul went from being a persecutor of Christians to one of the greatest writers of the Bible. But even though his conversion experience was one of the most dramatic in history, his role as a Christian leader didn’t develop instantly. There were 15 years between that moment on the Damascus road to the time that Paul became a servant of the church.
Bishop Schnase used two colors of paper to create two paths in the chancel area while he preached. He talked to the youth about how they are entering a time of their life when they will make many choices, about big things and little things. By adhering to faithful practices, and cooperating with the Holy Spirit, their individual paths may lead to places they never imagined.
About 160 people participated in the St. Louis area Confirmation Days with the Bishop, and a similar number was registered to take part in the Confirmation Days in Kansas City the following weekend.