Confirmation rites fail to sustain young people’s faith

The autumn round of confirmations starts tomorrow.

Young teenagers across the country have been spending weeks in churches learning about Christianity ahead of the big day when they confirm their faith and become full members of the Christian church.

Once the confirmations are done, however, very few of the youths return to church, and that’s a problem that needs to be addressed, says Ann Hermansdóttir, who was recently appointed to the newly formed position of vicar for young people.

Lack of relevance

Her task is to help make the church more relevant to today’s youth.

“Many young people tell me that they don’t understand a word of what the vicar preaches,” she says.

”This should serve as a big wake-up call to us vicars. We need to update the church’s teachings and make it relevant to their lives.”

New perspectives are needed.

”The content and the style of our sermons is one thing, but the glaring absence of young people at church services is a more pressing issue,” she says, outlining some of her plans to encourage youths to attend church.

 >> SEE ALSO Further decline in church memberships

“We should offer church services that are specifically tailored to young people’s needs and interests. Topics could include performance anxiety, general anxiety, loneliness, etc.”

Her plan is to host the first of these youth church services before the end of this year.

Hear the youth vicar explain more about how she intends to use her new position to reach young people here (in Faroese).

A list of autumn 2023 confirmands, including details about confirmation parties, is available here.

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

English version by prosa.fo.

More Faroese News in English.