Tag Archives: Facebook

Springtime is for . . . Confirmation (among other things)

April 21, 2014Discipleship, Parenting, Resources, Thoughts & Ramblingsbooks, Confirmation, Facebook, sacrament, theology, Youth, youth ministrySharon Ely Pearson

Alleluia! He is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

For many congregations, the time is drawing near when the bishop will make his or her annual visitation to confirm all those young people who have been preparing for confirmation. Classes were probably held during the Lenten season (or hopefully have been since September), so things are winding up. Perhaps those who were baptized at the Easter Vigil will be presented for confirmation, but most likely youth are finishing up their classes, writing their faith statements or letters to their bishop, and parents are planning the party to be held after the big event.

The Sunday after the rite of Confirmation is celebrated, most of those newly confirmed will be sleeping in, as well as their parents and siblings. The Sunday after a confirmation is often like the Sunday after Easter. “Low Sunday” in church-speak. Hopefully, they will be back in a few weeks, but as is the case in so many families, confirmation is one of those rituals that brings parents back to church to have their child “get done.” And for confirmation, that will mean they’ve been “signed, sealed, and delivered” into adulthood. Their rite of passage. Their graduation from faith formation. The parental responsibility of “bringing up their child in the Christian faith” has been accomplished.

For those who know me personally, you know I’m pretty passionate about this topic. Who (and how) we prepare youth for confirmation, and how we connect with parents about their role in this “mature decision” and lifelong commitment, is something I believe we (the Church = clergy, educators, vestries, parents, congregations) need to address. We need to have conversations about our own experiences and what we believe the role confirmation has in the life of today’s teens as well as what it means to a congregation. If we had a better understanding of why we feel the way we do about confirmation, I believe we would be “doing it” differently.

I felt so strongly about this, I invited a group of colleagues in the Episcopal Church to contribute to a book that was recently published. Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Theologies of Confirmation for the 21st Century offers a historical perspective of how this rite came to be (liturgically, sacramentally, and theologically), essays from bishops, priests, scholars, and Christian formation leaders, and a discussion guide for small groups and congregations to share their own theology of confirmation.

I invite you to read the book (via print or for your e-reader). Join in the conversation – here or on the book’s Facebook page. In the coming week’s I’ll be posting some reactions and resources.

What is YOUR theology of confirmation?

To blog, to tweet, to pin, to dream

June 4, 2012Faith & Culture, General Convention, Resources, Social Media, Thoughts & RamblingsBlog, Curriculum, Facebook, Google, Pinterest, social media, Social Networking, TwitterSharon Ely Pearson

Rows of Sharon seems to have fallen off my radar screen (in a way) as other social media and writing assignments have usurped by on-line time. So here’s how I’m making up for lost reflections here.

It’s an interesting world we live in today, and as a digital immigrant, I’m having fun learning all the ins and outs of the various avenues that seem to open up each day. I’ve just succumbed to linking my personal e-mail (via gmail) to Google+. I’m still not sure what the enhancement will be to being part of “circles” yet, but as they say, “You’ve got to be in it, to win (participate) in it.”

For those who’ve told me they can’t keep track of all the blogs, websites and other digital pieces I manage, I figured I’d run down all of them here in one place. Not just to share with you, but to list them all in one place.

E-mail – that goes without saying. Being a remote staff person for Church Publishing (I am one of many as more and more of us can easily do our jobs using today’s technology in which we are a simple conference call, “Go To Meeting,” or “Web-Ex” connection away.

Blogs – That’s where the time gets eaten up. I oversee many of these; some more intensely than others. Building Faith is sponsored by CPI and has an article posted everyday. Thankfully, I have a cadre of great educators who contribute an article or two each month. Otherwise, all articles come from me – either personally written or searched for from other avenues in the public sphere. I also post weekly to the site that corresponds to my book, The Prayer Book Guide to Christian Education. I list the lectionary readings for the coming week with some reflection questions for personal or group use. There are some for my work with the Standing Commission on Christian Formation and Education: The Charter for Lifelong Christian Formation & Education and Building the Continuum.

Facebook – of course! What started as a simple way to keep connected with friends (which it still is) has become a major way in which I share resources, ideas and information with colleagues, educators and others. I administer several Facebook groups – professional and personal. There’s one for each of the blogs I administer, my church (where I’m Jr. Warden), St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Wilton, Connecticut, plus I share oversight with others from CPI for Church Publishing, Living the Good News and Weaving God’s Promises. Thankfully, many of the blog postings automatically are set to also post to their particular FB pages, so I don’t need to manually make all the connections work all the time.

Twitter – You can find me at @rowsofsharonp. I’m amazed that I have 254 followers! Most days my blogs posts are simply pushed to Twitter and if I come across an article or new resource, I tweet that. At events I’m more active, such as the recent Children, Youth and a New Kind of Christianity Conference this past May in Washington, DC. I expect I’ll be tweeting at Kanuga’s Christian Formation Conference next week and during July at General Convention. Follow me!

Pinterest – This is the latest one in which I am still learning and adding from time to time. At first it seemed this was a social media site for collecting and sharing recipes, the latest fashions and shoe styles. None of which I have the slightest interest in. However, I do try to keep my bibliographies and book lists up to date for when folks ask for recommendations. And lately I have not been doing well at that. So . . . why not create a virtual site that directly links to books, categorized by topic and ministry category! Check it out and let me know what titles you believe should be added to each “board.”

LinkedIn – I’m “there” too, but it’s pretty static. I’m not looking for a job and the conversations seem to be a bit of a stretch. So no efforts going into that one.