### The Function of Confirmation in the Church - Confirmation is a protocol of boundary-creation for the Body of the Church, to allow the assessment of sincerity and capacity of the aspirant; - Does the aspirant have a **sincere** aspiration to live a life aligned with the [[Poetic Attunement|love of goodness, truth, and beauty for its own sake]]? - Does the aspirant demonstrate the **capacity** for correcting for self-deception as they endeavor to be true to that aspiration? - Confirmation is a ritual to for the aspirant to [[Clarification of Desire|clarify their desire]] and take their power as [[Source|source]]. ### The Confirmation Process 1. **Confirmation is a self-authored process organized around the “[[Clarification of Desire|clarification of desire]]”.** 2. **It is the responsibility of the aspirant to [source](https://publish.obsidian.md/intimateweb/Theology/Core+Theology/Source) the arena in which their Confirmation process will unfold.** The aspirant's Quest takes place within a container of their own making. 3. ⁠**The process of Confirmation has a quality of endlessness, of spiraling, of circumambulation.** While Confirmation may eventually culminate in a ritual and come to a formal 'ending,' the 'soulmaking patterns' that are confronted by the aspirant are not meant to be fixed, finished, or resolved by their Quest. 4. **⁠⁠Engaging in the confirmation process, each aspirant confronts and discloses their '[soulmaking patterns](https://publish.obsidian.md/intimateweb/Church+Systems+and+Practices/Confirmation+and+Membership/Soulmaking+Patterns)'**—the irresolvable tensions, bottomless griefs, and idiosyncratic inquiries that illuminates their uniqueness. These patterns encompass the paths they walk, the torments they face, the gifts they bear, and the way they navigate the world. 5. **The aspirant then transmutes these patterns into [Artifact(s) of Confirmation](https://publish.obsidian.md/intimateweb/Church+Systems+and+Practices/Confirmation+and+Membership/Confirmation+Artifacts), offering their dilemmas to the church, where they are made sacred in, through, and as the [Body of the Church](https://publish.obsidian.md/intimateweb/Theology/Extended+Theology/Body+of+the+Church).**