Commontide
Confirmation — alternate form at the laying on of hands
Strengthen, O Lord, with your Holy Spirit, your servant N.; empower him for your service; and sustain him all the days of his life. Amen.
Draft — AI-assisted research under editorial review.
This short formula, spoken as the bishop lays hands on each candidate at Confirmation, entered the prayer-book tradition with the 1979 Episcopal prayer book, where it stood as the primary wording alongside the older "Defend, O Lord" that Anglican rites had carried since Cranmer. The ACNA 2019 prayer book adopted it with a slight rearrangement of words.