Regarding Confession/Penance in the Orthodox Church
nick cobb
From: The Orthodox Faith
By: Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko
The sacrament of penance is our formal act of reconciliation with God
in the Church when sin has severed us from the Church's life. Because
penance is the way to communion with God when that communion has been
broken by sin, it is often referred to in Church Tradition as the
renewal of baptism, or as the reestablishment of that condition of
life with God which was given to men in the basic sacraments of
inauguration into the Christian life.
Not every sin requires the necessity of formal penance through
sacramental ritual. This is obvious because Christians are never
completely without sin. Certain grave sins or the prolonged separation
from Holy Communion, however, do call for the act of sacramental
penance. Also, Christians living in communion with Christ are expected
to make use of this sacrament periodically in order to humble
themselves consciously before God and to receive guidance in the
Christian life from their pastor in the Church. It is the teaching of
the Orthodox Church that sacramental penance is necessary for those
receiving Holy Communion when they have committed grave sins or when
they have been separated from the eucharistic meal for a long time.
The sacrament of penance exists in the Church to allow for the
repentance and reconversion of Christians who have fallen away from
the life of faith. There are three main elements to the act of formal
penance. The first is a sincere sorrow for sins and for the breaking
of communion with God. The second is an open and heartfelt confession
of sins. At one time this confession was done publicly before all men
in the midst of the Church, but in recent times it is usually done
only in the presence of the pastor of the Church who stands in behalf
of all. The third element of penance is the formal prayer of
absolution through which the forgiveness of God through Christ is
sacramentally bestowed upon the repentant sinner.
The fulfillment of penance consists in the reception of Holy Communion
and the genuine reconciliation of the repentant sinner with God and
all men according to the commandments of Christ. From this there
obviously follows the necessity of a sincere attempt by the penitent
to refrain from sin and to remain in faithful obedience to God and in
uprightness of life before Him and all people.
The sacrament of penance, like all sacraments, is an element of the
life of the Church which presupposes a firm belief and conviction that
Christ himself is present in the Church through his Holy Spirit. A
person without the experience of Christ in the Church will not
understand the meaning of sacramental penance and the need for the
open and public confession of sins. When the Church is experienced as
the new life in Christ and as the genuine communion with God in his
kingdom already present with men in sacrament and mystery, then not
only will sacramental penance and the confession of sins be
understood, but it will be cherished as the great mystery of God which
it is: the unique possibility for reunion with God through the
forgiveness of Christ who has come to save sinners who confess their
sins and who sincerely desire to change their lives according to the
ways which he himself has given.
In a word, the Orthodox Church strictly adheres to the teaching of the
Bible that only God can forgive sins, that he does so through Christ
in the Church, that his conditions are genuine repentance and the
promise of change which are witnessed by confession; and that
confession, by definition, is the open and public acknowledgment of
sin before God and all mankind.
OrthoNews
OCA Clergy guidelines. Here is the entire section on Penance. Note item No.
6. and note the reference to the report, Confidentiality of Confession, Holy
Synod of the Orthodox Church in America, 1988. Confession in the OCA and in
all of Holy Orthodoxy is absolutely confidential and absolutely secret.
The Mystery of Penance
Confession, the mystery of reconcilliation with the Church, must be regular
and frequent. It must be an abiding element in the lives oif the faithful,
deformalized and revitalized as the most common and normal actions of a
people continually united and reunited with each other and with God. See: On
Spiritual Life in the Church, Encyclical.
1. The priest, as spiritual father and confessor of the flock entrusted to
his care, must determine the frequency with which the spiritual child
confesses his/her sins.
2. For those who seldom receive Holy Communion, the priest must keep in all
its strictness the obligation for confession before communion. However, if
someone wants to confess more often than he/she communes, the Spiritual
Father should be prepared to hear that person's confession at all times.
3. For reception of Holy Communion more than once a month, Confession must
be on a regular basis, and heard not less than once a month.
4. If General Confession is practiced, then the Order of Prayers before
Confession must be read. The General Service of Prayers Before Confession is
not meant to replace or be a substitute for personal confession.
5. The clergy are reminded that they must also avail themselves of the
Mystery of Penance regularly and faithfully. The priest who does not have a
Spiritual Father upon beginning his priestly ministry must seek one. If he
cannot find one, then he must turn to his hierarch to appoint one for him.
In some instances, there is a senior priest who has been appointed by the
hierarch as diocesan confessor to whom the priest can turn.
6. The secrecy of the Mystery of Penance is considered an unquestionable
rule in the entire Orthodox Church. Theologically, the need to maintain the
secrecy of confession comes from the fact that the priest is only a witness
before God. One could not expect a sincere and complete confession if the
penitent has doubts regarding the practice of confidentiality. Betrayal of
the secrecy of confession will lead to canonical punishment of the priest.
St. Nicodemus the Hagiorite exhorts the Spiritual Father to keep confessions
confidential, even under strong constraining influence. The author of the
Pedalion (the Rudder), states that a priest who betrays the secrecy of
confession is to be deposed. The Metropolitan of Kos, Emanuel, mentions in
his handbook (Exomologeteke) for confessors that the secrecy of confession
is a principle without exception.
7. The testimonial given by the Spiritual Father before an ordination does
not constitute an exception. If the confessor discovers an impediment to
ordination, he is not obligated to deliver the testimonial, and does not
need to provide any reason for justifying his refusal.
See Confidentiality of Confession, Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in
America, 1988. See: Confession and Communion, Report to the Holy Synod of
the Orthodox Church in America by Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, 1972.
MJS
priest is free to reveal what is confided in him in confession simply
because confessions used to be public but now the confessor stands
"stands in behalf of all." However, even if that were Fr. Thomas
Hopko's personal opinion, the plain language of the OCA clergy
guidelines would clearly govern in a civil suit.
<<The secrecy of the Mystery of Penance is considered an
unquestionable rule in the entire
Orthodox Church. Theologically, the need to maintain the secrecy of
confession comes from the
fact that the priest is only a witness before God. One could not
expect a sincere and complete
confession if the penitent has doubts regarding the practice of
confidentiality. Betrayal of the
secrecy of confession will lead to canonical punishment of the
priest.>>
http://www.oca.org/PDF/official/clergyguidelines.pdf?SID=12&ID=28
Melanie Jula Sakoda
PS Even Fr. Alexey Karlgut, in commenting on the Koumentakos lawsuit
to the Metropolitan Council and the OCA's Synod of bishops, wrote:
<<""As to allegations of violation of "pastoral confidentiality" it
should be stated that in teaching, Doctrine, and Canonical rules,
regulations, and tribunals for internal discipline and government of
the Orthodox Church no such concept exists. ****There is a requirement
for secrecy or Seal of Sacramental Confession that priests are
required to honor.****">> (Emphasis supplied.)
Fr. Alexey Karlgut, Orthodox Forum, Message #78093, May 3, 2008
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Orthodox-Forum/
(Membership in the Forum is required to review the post.)
++
MJS wrote:
>I don't see anything in this piece which explicitly states that a
>priest is free to reveal what is confided in him in confession simply
>because confessions used to be public but now the confessor stands
>"stands in behalf of all." However, even if that were Fr. Thomas
>Hopko's personal opinion, the plain language of the OCA clergy
>guidelines would clearly govern in a civil suit.
>
>
General confession was a late 19th -early 20th century movement to
facilitate more frequent communion and participation in church life, a
good thing. It should not be confused with periodic confession, special
needs confession to resolve some difficulty in spiritual life that has
come up or even the even more infrequent consultations of an ongoing
nature over time with one's spiritual father if one is fortunate enough
to have acquired a reliable spiritual father or fathers over time. We
Orthodox have a very healthy legacy of different kinds and purposes of
confession but only the public general confession in which people blurt
out their sins (and few people even do that in general confession any
more) in front of and with each other is not subject to secrecy. It is
very dangerous to assume anything but the highest degree of trust in the
confessional. In fact, one of the transitional problems our Church
suffers in former Soviet, Balkan and Eastern European countries is the
slow acceptance of laity that they can trust their clergy to have such
high standards after information in the confessional was abused by
communists masquerading as clergy.
Any backsliding in the sanctity of the confessional and the holiness of
the priest's role in the sacrament of confession could only hurt the Church.