HAPPY ST PATRICK’S DAY! – Gerald Alexander Ellison, the then august Lord Bishop of Chester, confirmed me on this day, forty-two years ago, in St Mark’s Claughton – and all these years on I still think it a wonder that I remember every moment of the occasion so clearly, and ponder every day the many millions of gallons of water that have flowed beneath countless bridges since. Nowadays I’m often involved in discussions about the relevance or importance of the Sacrament of Confirmation in the modern Church and World. Was my own Confirmation relevant or important 42 years ago? How shall I respond? – Except to say that forty-two years on I can still remember the sight, sound, touch and scent of it, the bishop, the priest, the very last well-wisher, and each and every candidate for and of it, magnified and writ large on each and every St Patrick’s Day! Laus Deo!
