A THOROUGHLY ENJOYABLE AWAY FIXTURE tonight for deanery Confirmation at St Mary, Stockport. Bishop Robert Atwell preached encouragingly and affirmingly, I don’t think I’ve heard a better intro to a Confirmation sermon – a brief reading from the Introduction to Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything …

Welcome … I am delighted that you could make it … In fact I suspect it was a little tougher than you realise …  (page17)

A man in his seventies and teenagers baptised alongside each other, 24 confirmed, great music, rousing hymn-singing, a coming together of old friends and new ones across parish and deanery boundaries … an affirming and a confirming of the faith of the Church and not just of our parish church. I think I’ll be looking out for deanery Confirmations in the future.