Welcome to this next leg of your journey of faith! The Affirmation of our Faith program provides a chance to explore what we believe and what difference our faith makes in our daily lives. This takes place through theme events, service opportunities, an Affirmation retreat, and faith-filled conversations. This time together is not about programs or even just knowledge, but about how we live our lives as people of God together.

From the time of your baptism, your parents have been entrusted with the promises of faith, called upon to share them with you. This never ends but continues in the Affirmation of our Faith. We are asking for parents to help in the teaching – both at home as well as in our class sessions. We will work with you, using this year’s curriculum to plan a lesson. Many of the weeks, while your young person is in class, we will be meeting with parents to share the joys, concerns, and challenges of being a parent to a budding teenager.

Young people in the 1^st and 2^nd years of Affirmation meet during the Faith Formation time after the first Sunday morning service. Parents are always welcome to join us and are encouraged to do some of the presentations. This year we will be covering stories from the Old and New Testaments. To do that, we are using material from “Living The Word” from Spirit and Truth publishing. This material complements the Sunday morning readings and the weekly take-home insert. Affirmation is not a “stand-alone” program but necessarily involves the families of the young people and their participation in worship, service projects, fellowship, and the Affirmation Retreat.

We participate in the Affirmation Retreat at Koinonia (Koinonia) with several other congregations. The camp is located in Highland Falls, NY, about 2 hours from Brewster.

The most important aspect of Affirmation is how we share our faith at home. We believe this to be so critical that parents and their children come to the alter and promise to take time each day to share their highs and lows and talk about how their faith has influenced their day.

The fee for Affirmation continues to be $100, which covers the costs of curriculum, the retreat, robes, and any other needed program materials. If anyone has any financial difficulties with this cost, please let us know – this should not be a deterrent to participating in this rite of passage.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact us.