[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") wrote to a clergyman
of authority as to the practice in the Church of Ireland in reference to requiring Con- firmation prior to admission to Communion. I enclose his. reply, which I think will be of use to you.—I am, Sir, &c., x.
"In the Church of Ireland it is not obligatory as a condition of receiving the Holy Communion, but it is regarded as advisable. The rubrics in the Church of Ireland Prayer-book is :— Every person ought to present himself for Confirmation (unless. prevented by some urgent reason), before he partakes of the Lord's Supper.'
Our Scriptural basis for the rite is Hob. vi. 2: Acts viii. 17, xix. 0. There is reference to the passages in the Acts in one of the prayers in the Confirmation Service. But those who revised our Prayer-book in 1877 seem to have thought that though there is this Scriptural basis, yet there is not sufficient Scriptural and historical ground on which to rest a refusal of admission to the Holy Communion. I would never refuse any one except for unbelief or immorality. Confirmation is one of the many things which the Chicago- Lambeth quadrilateral deliberately leaves out when it sets forth its irreducible minimum."
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