A 93-YEAR-OLD former RAF Flight Lieutenant, Dennis Minns, has described as “deeply meaningful” his confirmation during a service held in the care home in which he lives in the Oxfordshire town of Watlington.

Mr Minns has been a churchgoer for many years, which has included attending matins at St Mary’s Church, Pyrton; but he had never been confirmed. He spent many years travelling with his late wife, Monica, his daughter, Janet, and his son, David, a retired priest, who gave the Gospel reading at the confirmation service.

The Revd Val Kearney, an associate priest at St Mary’s, who takes weekly communion services at the home, said on Tuesday: “ Dennis has always held on to his faith. When I was an ordinand here, it was he who taught me what Matins required of me, rather than the other way round. He came to our services in the home every week, and it was he who insisted he didn’t feel it was right to take communion without being confirmed.”

Mr Minns made friends with a Christian resident, and it was on a trip to Dorchester Abbey that both of them had sat listening to Fauré and had simultaneously turned to one another. “He said, ‘I think I’d like to be confirmed,’ and she said ‘I think you should be confirmed.’ They took that as a sign,” Mrs Kearney said.

The Area Bishop of Dorchester, the Rt Revd Gavin Collins, conducted the service. He had done so “like an old friend”, and it had been a lovely service, Mr Minns told the local press. The manager at the care home, Julie Cooper, said: “Dennis is a wonderful reminder that it’s never too late to do something that his deeply meaningful. His enthusiasm and courage have inspired everyone at the home.”