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Confession

The purpose of confession is to reconcile a person to the Church. Baptism is the sacrament that admits us into the Body of Christ (the Church), and cleanses us from all sin. In the beginning of its days, the Church had to decide how to respond to those who had sinned after their baptism had to be determined. At a fundamental level, this had to do with how the Church saw itself - was it the place of the chosen? Or, was it a vehicle taking those in it towards salvation? Eventually, the latter would be accepted, which had an effect on what confession was for.

While there was no little dispute over this - including the formation of a schismatic group - the place of confession was gradually established by St Callistus of Rome in the early third century. The idea that a person who had committed a grave (but not mortal) sin could be forgiven after much fasting and prayer was introduced before this, with confession for minor sins was done before the congregation; after the time of St Callistus, confession could be done for all manner of sins.

Why was confession done publically? Because ultimately, sin is not just against God, it is also against the community. To this day, there exists a service called the Vespers of Forgiveness (in Southeast Queensland, this is a pan-Orthodox service) which is done immediately before Lent, after which everyone will personally ask everyone present for their forgiveness - even those that they do not know. Open dislike or animosity is not the only thing that must be repented of - there are subtler ways of offending Love: indifference, lack of interest in other children of God must also be repented of.

It must be remembered that for the first three centuries of Christianity, it was a religion of martyrs - one becoming Christian knew that they took their earthly lives into their hands. After the legalisation of Christianity in 303, there were people coming into the congregation who were not necessarily quite so committed. Aside from being a catalyst in the rise of monasticism, it also brought about the introduction of what we could call private confession - while a confessing person could not necessarily trust that the entire congregation would support them to repent from their sin, they could trust that at least the leader of the congregation, the priest, would do so.

The starting point of Christ's ministry, and of St John the Baptist's ministery, is the call to "[r]epent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand". The word for repentance in Greek, μετάνοια, literally means a complete change of the way one look at life, which means that our repentance must be a re-centring on what Christ teaches for us to behave. Confession isn't simply about self-pity, but about being forgiven and changing one's ways. Related to this is our article on 'sin'.

An Orthodox child following Orthodox practise will begin confession around the time when the child begins to distinguish an action as being sinful or not - usually around six or seven years of age. A confession will take place in the nave, or centre, of the church building, with three 'parties' present: God, the confessing person and the priest. The role of the confessing person is, with forethought, to tell God of all sins and problems in their spiritual life; the role of the priest is to be a witness, to offer any appropriate guidance to help in the spiritual life and to pray the prayer for absolution. The most important role played is of God, who forgives the sins of those who ask forgiveness. All three are essential: the confessing person must repent, without which forgiveness cannot be received; the priest must witness, as representative of the Church and the hands through which God works; and God, as the one who loves mankind, forgives us with willingness and eagerness.

We must restate, however, that knowing the texts is a different thing from praying these texts in community, as they were designed to be used. We invite you to visit us.

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Contact the Parish
P.O. Box 448
Southport   4215
Ph: (07) 5573 7977
E-mail: Fr Raymond
E-mail: Webmaster

Regular Services
Divine Liturgy
Sunday 8am
The Chapel,
18 Tonga Pl, Parkwood

The Parish of Saint Barnabas the Apostle, 2007-2008, is in the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and New Zealand.
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