On May 19th, 2002, we celebrated the completion of the confirmation process for a group of our youth at 1st Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto. Having served as a confirmation partner, I was incredibly moved by the spiritual journey these young men and women are on, and the place where they are today.

In the worship service we held on May 19th, at one point when we were standing around the circle and taking communion, I looked around and thought "We are all praying for and waiting for the kindom of God yet if we just stopped for one second today and looked around, we would see that at least here, now, in this place, the kindom has come." Gathered around that table were young and old, sighted and blind, people of all colors and races, Republican, Democrat, Green, Libertarian, apolitical, radical, conservative, Gay and Straight, Jew and Christian.... We were sharing our joys, our sorrows, our hopes and our dreams and feeding each other bread and sharing the cup of hope.

If we gave the youth in our confirmation classes nothing else, giving them this vision of the kindom of God to carry with them as they travel this world may be all they need. Having heard their statements of faith in a fireside chat a few weeks ago, I also know that they'll carry all that they've learned with them, just as we will carry all that they've taught us. Together, we can help bring the kindom we caught a glimpse of on Sunday out to the rest of the world.

Here then, a picture of our confirmands! (Thanks Holly and Eric for the photo):

Confirmation Class of 2002