FEATURE: Confirmation Training Is Central to the Culture of Finnish Youth Guidance and Accompaniment for Life
HELSINKI, Finland/GENEVA, 23 June 2006 (LWI) - As many as nine out of every ten 15-year-olds attend the confirmation classes provided by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF), making it central to Finnish youth culture in the predominantly Lutheran country.
"In confirmation training, the youth's questions about life are taken seriously, and kept close to the worldview of a 15-year-old," says Rev. Jarmo Kokkonen, the ELCF coordinator of the training program. He credits the program's success to the crucial role played by the "young confirmed volunteers," who participated in the training one or two years ago, and received additional skills training for group leadership. Up to a third of the confirmed youth join the volunteer program. "Their own good experience in the confirmation camp inspires them to become young confirmed volunteers," he says, referring to the program's self-sustaining cycle. As tutors of confirmation candidates, throughout the training, the volunteers guarantee ongoing contact with the world of future participants.
The six-month training includes 80 mixed lessons for girls and boys, and usually a youth camp lasting from five to 12 days. Individual contact is also established with their families, for example, through parents' evenings. The training has become a major part of parish youth work, in which nearly all staff members participate, Kokkonen explains. The ELCF employs thousands of well-trained professionals in youth work.
The program coordinator describes the training as a fitting representation of Finnish Lutheranism. "Earlier in Finland," he continues, "the central meaning of confirmation training within society was that reading skills and knowledge of the Catechism could be addressed, which led to the right to get married." Although today the target is mainly young people, the program still incorporates essential civil rights. Only those who have been confirmed can be married in the ELCF, serve as godparents, participate in Holy Communion, or stand for office in church elections, he adds.
But the fact that the majority of those in the targeted age group attend the training does not necessarily mean that Finnish youth are more spiritually active, Kokonnen says. The church does not "meet young people in confirmation training with the wish that they become model church members." The aim is to guide them and to provide life-long accompaniment.
The training is also offered to non-ELCF members, including adults. Every year, 3-4 percent of them become members of the church, which has some 4.6 million members, representing 84 percent of Finland's population.
The ELCF joined the Lutheran World Federation in 1947. (439 words)
(The ELCF Communications Center contributed to this article.)
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(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF currently has 140 member churches in 78 countries all over the world, with a total membership of 66.2 million. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva, Switzerland.)
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