288 Dimensions of Baptism
recovery of the earlier tradition of the church that eucharist is in fact the
fulfilment and sacramental completion of the initiatory processs' (§3.6).
This is despite the insistence elsewhere in the report that baptism alone is
'complete sacramental initiation'. If eucharist is after all needed to com-
plete the process, then why not confirmation or some similar occasion for
a personal confession of faith? We begin to detect that there may be
undercurrents in this discussion, privileging first communion rather than
confirmation as in effect part of one process, while insisting overtly on
there being no process of initiation at all. The desire to admit the baptized
to eucharist before confirmation may, perhaps, have 'skewed' a perspec-
tive on initiation.
Traditionally, a kind of 'two-stage' view of initiation or Christian begin-
nings—baptism and confirmation—was held by Anglicans in both the
'Reformed' and 'Tractarian' traditions. Despite the fact that confirmation
was a late development in the West (ninth century), and despite ambiguity
about whether candidates were confirming their faith or whether God was
confirming (establishing) their salvation, some view of an extended proc-
ess prevailed. The two rites might be understood as two sacramental acts
in sequence, or two parts of the same sacrament divided in time. As
recently as the 1958 report on Baptism and Confirmation, it could be con-
fidently said that 'the word 'confirm' possesses two meanings—to
strengthen and to complete.. .these two ways of looking at Confirmation
are not mutually exclusive'.^18 In the Reformed tradition, completion of
initiation in confirmation was seen to be necessary to leave place for the
confession of personal faith; there is good evidence that the English
Reformers only felt able to retain the practice of infant baptism because
the child, being brought up in a Christian society, was certain in the course
of time to make the baptismal promise his or her own {'until he come of
age to take it upon himself),^19 and was indeed 'bound to believe, and
to do', as the Godparents had promised on the child's behalf.^20 In the
Tractarian tradition, confirmation by the Bishop was associated with the
authority of the 'historic episcopate', including such aspects as a personal- Baptism and Confirmation: A Report submitted by the Church of England
Liturgical Commission to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in November 1958
(London: SPCK, 1959), pp. xii-xiii. - 'The Ministration of Public Baptism of Infants; Charge to the Godparents by
the Priest', in The Book of Common Prayer... According to the Use of the Church of
England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, n.d.), pp. 263-71 (267). - 'The Catechism', fourth question, Book of Common Prayer, pp. 284-96 (289).