Confirmation Day

The town of Parea may not look much as you pass by on the road to Oruro but it boasts the oldest Church in Bolivia dating back to the 1530’s. It was also one of the St James’ Society’s first parishes in Bolivia back in the 1960’s. Although it was the earliest settlement high up in the Bolivian Altiplano, it was soon overtaken in size by Oruro with its mining community attracting people from across Bolivia. The parish is now run by a Liverpool priest who has previously worked in Bolivia with the St James’ Society, Fr Joe Bibby.



It was great to spend a weekend there recently, especially as the parish was celebrating Confirmation for 40 young people. It’s largely a rural community and it’s a bumpy four hour drive to some of the outlying parish communities. Mass is celebrated once a month in the main Parea church and then, on other Sundays, at another of the thirty communities in the parish - a very special occasion for those places which would only celebrate mass once or twice in a year.



One of my last memories back in Peterborough was the celebration of Confirmation and as we celebrated the Mass with those 40 Confirmation candidates I was remembering vividly the celebration back in April and reflecting that there is a great bond between those young people from the high mountain planes of Bolivia and our 19 young people from low lying Peterborough on the other side of the world. The sense of hope that we are never alone in this life but always bound in unity by the Holy Spirit was very much a part of both celebrations. The challenges in life will be quite different for both groups and yet fundamentally the same - as St Paul puts it “to speak the truth in love” (Eph 4: 15). In some ways the challenge is clearer here in Bolivia - the lies of injustice and indifference are much easier to see and define. In the Western world they may be more subtle and clouded by the frenetic activity of modern life. Confirmation though is a great way of recognising our deep lying equality across the world - all of us have the same dignity and the gifts of the Spirit are given to all, the same Spirit of joy characterised these two celebrations which have strengthened and inspired me this year.