Which Protestant Church still have confessionals?

[Mannyfit75]

I know the Anglicans and Lutherans have confessions. I wonder if there are others who still have confessions? or the Alter Call their version of a confession?

 

[Cancerian]

I know the Anglicans and Lutherans have confessions. I wonder if there are others who still have confessions? or the Alter Call their version of a confession?

Interesting question. From what I’ve read it seems Lutherans and some Anglicans have confession of a sort. But I’ve never seen a confessional in a non-Catholic church. Do even these two have confessionals in the Catholic sense or is confession within these churches more along the lines of, if you feel the need to, you may confess to your pastor whatever is troubling you?

Thanks.

 

[Wings]

I was raised, baptized, and confirmed Lutheran, and converted about 2 years ago. According to Scott Hahn, there is an order for pastors to conduct confessions in the Lutheran Book of Worship, although I never saw or heard of it. I’ve never seen a confessional in a Lutheran church.

 

[cascherman]

I was raised, baptized, and confirmed Lutheran, and converted about 2 years ago. According to Scott Hahn, there is an order for pastors to conduct confessions in the Lutheran Book of Worship, although I never saw or heard of it. I’ve never seen a confessional in a Lutheran church.

I as well before I converted was Lutheran for 17 years. I have never seen a confessional and I have had a few of my still-Lutheran friends debate with me against confessing to a human.

I believe Anglican/Episcopal is the only one that comes to mind.

 

[pyropam]

Protestant churches do not have confessionals. Mainly because they believe they only need to confess to God. They don’t ever need to confess to their minister. Protestant ministers are not required by anyone to keep a confession secret.

 

[Hellisreal]

I was raised, baptized, and confirmed Lutheran, and converted about 2 years ago. According to Scott Hahn, there is an order for pastors to conduct confessions in the Lutheran Book of Worship, although I never saw or heard of it. I’ve never seen a confessional in a Lutheran church.

I think there are at least 3 different kinds of Lutherans…
(isnt there a thread on that?)
but, the augsburg confession did not do away with it as far as I know, or can try to make sense of it…

 

[Hellisreal]

Protestant churches do not have confessionals. Mainly because they believe they only need to confess to God. They don’t ever need to confess to their minister. Protestant ministers are not required by anyone to keep a confession secret.

There are so many different kinds, how can we know for sure?

 

[Contarini]

Interesting question. From what I’ve read it seems Lutherans and some Anglicans have confession of a sort. But I’ve never seen a confessional in a non-Catholic church. Do even these two have confessionals in the Catholic sense or is confession within these churches more along the lines of, if you feel the need to, you may confess to your pastor whatever is troubling you?

From the Reformation until the 19th century Anglicans did not practice regular confession as a spiritual discipline for healthy people, and did not regard it as a sacrament. People conscious of serious sin, or sick people in danger of death, did confess their sins to the priest as a way of easing their conscience. There was also a general confession and absolution in the liturgy, as in most other traditional Protestant churches. In the 19th century, Anglo-Catholics restored the practice of regular confession, and some Anglo-Catholic churches have confessional booths (in the U.S. these are found mostly in the big, rich churches in major cities–St. Mary the Virgin in NYC, for instance, where I have been to confession in a confessional booth). The practice was opposed at first but is now widely accepted, though for the most part it is only practiced regularly by people on the more Catholic end of the Anglican spectrum. My low-church (and liberal) rector in New Jersey seemed to find the idea of regular confession rather weird. My Anglo-Catholic rector in North Carolina encouraged the practice strongly, and my current priest (more moderate but still quite high-church) also encourages it. In NC I went to confession at the altar rail, with the priest sitting just inside. I have been to confession once in my current church (last Lent) and I did it in the priest’s office. (Remember that confessional booths are a post-Reformation phenomenon in Catholicism, and that the Orthodox do not use them.)

Most Anglicans would subscribe to the maxim (with regard to private confession) “All may, none must, some should.” In other words, it is regarded as a particular spiritual discipline that arose in the Church as one way of practicing the more general power of the Church to forgive sins in God’s name, which is also exercised in the general confession and absolution. I don’t think Catholic scholars would challenge the fact that private confession was not a regular practice for most Christians until the Middle Ages.

In the Episcopal Church today, Confession is seen as a “lesser” sacrament–not one of the two “evangelical” sacraments instituted by Christ, but a sacramental rite that developed in the Church under the guidance of the Spirit. And as I’ve shown, it can be practiced in different ways, both communally and individually.

Lutherans, as I understand them, have historically regarded confession and absolution as a way to experience God’s forgiveness and to have faith awakened. Luther regarded it as something all Christians should do, but he insisted that it was not necessary to confess all one’s “mortal” sins, since this led inevitably (in his view) to scrupulosity and the torment of the conscience. Rather, confession is a way of acknowledging one’s sinfulness in general and receiving the authoritative word of forgiveness pronounced by the minister (or in cases of emergency by any Christian) on Christ’s behalf. Confession lapsed in Lutheranism over the centuries, but there have been various revivals of the practice. The Missouri Synod seminary near me posts confession times on the door of their chapel. However, they are near the “high-church” end of the Lutheran spectrum.

I know this information is confusing. I hope it is helpful.

Edwin

 

[rr1213]

From what I’ve seen in the LCMS, which may or may not be typical, there is provision for private confession but I think that it is very rarely used. There is corporate confession and absolution at each service.

 

[rr1213]

I don’t think Catholic scholars would challenge the fact that private confession was not a regular practice for most Christians until the Middle Ages.

What was the practice prior to the Middle Ages? Corporate confession? Individual confession before the entire Parish? Something different?

 

[Mannyfit75]

What was the practice prior to the Middle Ages? Corporate confession? Individual confession before the entire Parish? Something different?

It was public. They didn’t have confessionals. Confession was a public confessed. The priests or bishop would give the sinner penance which was very harsh. He was banished from the community for a period of two weeks or more. I may have to get more information on this and back it up.

 

[Cancerian]

From the Reformation…

I know this information is confusing. I hope it is helpful.

Edwin

Very interesting post. Thanks, Edwin.

 

[Mannyfit75]

This is what I got from Wikipedia.

The Manuals of confession in the Middle Ages
In the Middle Ages the manuals of confession constituted a literary genre. These manuals were guidebooks on how to obtain the maximum benefits from the sacrament. There were two kinds of manuals: those addressed to the faithful, so that they could prepare a good confession, and those addressed to the priests, who had to make sure that no sins were left unmentioned and the confession was as thorough as possible. The priest had to ask questions, while being careful not to suggest sins that perhaps the faithful had not thought of and give them ideas. Manuals were written in Latin and in the vernacular. See fordham.edu/halsall/projects/arroyo/manuels.htm (in French) about manuals of confession in medieval Spain.

In the Eastern Catholicism it is different:

Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Catholicism

Within the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, it is understood that the Mystery of confession and repentance has more to do with the spiritual development of the individual and much less to do with purification. Sin is not seen as a stain on the soul, but rather a mistake that needs correction.

In general, the Eastern Christian chooses an individual to trust as his or her spiritual guide. In most cases this is the parish priest but may, in fact, be any individual, male or female, who has received permission from a bishop to hear confessions. This person is often referred to as one’s spiritual father or mother. Once chosen, the individual turns to his spiritual guide for advice on his or her spiritual development, confessing sins, and asking advice. Eastern Christians tend to confess only to this individual and the intimacy created by this bond makes the spiritual guide the most qualified in dealing with the person, so much so, that no one can override what a spiritual guide tells his or her charges. What is confessed to one’s spiritual guide is protected by the same seal as would be any priest hearing a confession.

In general practice, after one confesses to one’s spiritual guide, the parish priest (Who may or may not have heard the confession but canonically should have) covers the head of the person with his Epitrachelion (Stole) and reads the prayers of repentance, asking God to forgive the transgression of the individual. It is highly possible that the person confesses his sins to his spiritual guide on a regular basis but only seeks out the priest to read the prayer before communing.

In some Eastern Catholic Churches, clergy make their confession in the sanctuary, in public view but quietly.

 

[Contarini]

What was the practice prior to the Middle Ages? Corporate confession? Individual confession before the entire Parish? Something different?

As Mannyfit says, confession seems to have been mainly a public act following serious sins such as adultery, murder, or apostasy. However, a friend of mine found a reference in Chrysostom (c. 400) to what appeared to be private confession, so it may have started earlier than the usual narrative claims. What you usually hear is that private confession started as a monastic practice and didn’t spread to the laity (at least not on a large scale) before the early Middle Ages (maybe 8th cent.?), when Irish monks popularized the practice. However, that leaves open the question of how this spread to the East, so I think my friend is probably right and laypeople were confessing their sins privately before the Irish started running around.
The question I’d like to see answered is at what point confession became the expected prelude to the reception of the Eucharist. That is the traditional Orthodox practice (you confess as often as you receive Communion), and seems to lie behind the 13th-century Western decree that everyone had to confess and commune at least once a year.

Edwin

 

[Mannyfit75]

As Mannyfit says, confession seems to have been mainly a public act following serious sins such as adultery, murder, or apostasy. However, a friend of mine found a reference in Chrysostom (c. 400) to what appeared to be private confession, so it may have started earlier than the usual narrative claims. What you usually hear is that private confession started as a monastic practice and didn’t spread to the laity (at least not on a large scale) before the early Middle Ages (maybe 8th cent.?), when Irish monks popularized the practice. However, that leaves open the question of how this spread to the East, so I think my friend is probably right and laypeople were confessing their sins privately before the Irish started running around.
The question I’d like to see answered is at what point confession became the expected prelude to the reception of the Eucharist. That is the traditional Orthodox practice (you confess as often as you receive Communion), and seems to lie behind the 13th-century Western decree that everyone had to confess and commune at least once a year.

Edwin

The Eastern Churches to include EO and EC differs in the confessional than the West. Eastern Christian chooses an individual to trust as his or her spiritual guide, .ie… a priest.

 

[Mannyfit75]

Among the modernistic propositions condemned by Pius X in the Decree “Lamentabili sane” (3 July, 1907) are the following:

“In the primitive Church there was no concept of the reconciliation of the Christian sinner by the authority of the Church, but the Church by very slow degrees only grew accustomed to this concept. Moreover, even after penance came to be recognized as an institution of the Church, it was not called by the name of sacrament, because it was regarded as an odious sacrament.” (46)
“The Lord’s words: ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain they are retained’ (John xx, 22-23), in no way refer to the Sacrament of Penance, whatever the Fathers of Trent may have been pleased to assert.” (47)

From New Advent.org

An undeniable proof both of the practice of confession and of the necessity of satisfaction is found in the usage of the early Church according to which severe and often prolonged penance was prescribed and performed. The elaborate system of penance exhibited in the “Penitentials” and conciliar decrees, referred to above, was of course the outcome of a long development; but it simply expressed in greater detail the principles and the general attitude towards sin and satisfaction which had prevailed from the beginning. Frequently enough the latter statutes refer to the earlier practice either in explicit terms or by reiterating what had been enacted long before. At times, also, they allude to documents which were then extant, but which have not yet come down to us, e.g., the libellus mentioned in the African synods of 251 and 255 as containing singula capitum placita, i.e., the details of previous legislation (St. Cyprian, Ep. xxi). Or again, they point to a system of penance that was already in operation and needed only to be applied to particular cases, like that of the Corinthians to whom Clement of Rome wrote his First Epistle about A. D. 96, exhorting them: “Be subject in obedience to the priests (presbyteris) and receive discipline [correctionem) unto penance, bending the knees of your hearts” (Ep. I “Ad Cor.”, lvii). At the close, therefore, of the first century, the performance of penance was required, and the nature of that penance was determined, not by the penitent himself, but by ecclesiastical authority. (See EXCOMMUNICATION.)

newadvent.org/cathen/11618c.htm

Confession I believe was private but penance itself was very public in the Early Church.
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