Confession and Spiritual Direction in the Orthodox Church
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CONFESSION AND SPIRITUAL DIRECTION IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH ARCHIMANDRITE JOB (GETCHA) SOME MODERN QUESTIONS TO A VERY ANCIENT PRACTICE In the Orthodox Church today, one can notice a very large variety in the practice of confession. A recent colloquium1 has even shown that the understanding of confession may vary from one place to another. The differences in the practice of confession, which is indeed a very ancient one, arise a long list of questions to the modern man: 1) Where does the confession take place? In a church, or in a room? In front of an icon, or in front of the cross and the gospel? Is the penitent standing, kneeling or seating? Today, in most Ukrainian parishes, the priest hears confession in the church, and the penitent is often kneeling, as in Greece, it is common to confess in an office while the penitent is seating. 2) Which « absolution » prayers should be used? We find indeed a large number of prayers in the Byzantine Euchologia (Books of needs). Some of them use a deprecative formula (« May God forgive... »), others use an indicative formula (« I forgive and absolve you »), as for instance in the Trebnyk of St. Peter Mohyla. 3) Is confession regarded as optional or required? Is this a necessity to go confession before receiving communion, or should one approach the mystery of confession when he feels that he needs to confess something? Is confession a normal practice, that should be regarded as a regular practice, or is it linked with moments of crisis only? Is confession a necessity, like a cold bath, or is it an opportunity, a moment when one can experience divine grace? Once, in a parish in Western Europe, a priest obliged an old Greek parishioner to come for confession. The old man was quite furious and said to the priest: « Father, I have been married for more than fifty years, and I have never committed adultery. So, I do not have anything to confess! » 4) How often should it be practised? Before each communion, once a month, few times in the year or once a year? Does any canon speak of its regularity? Should we repent 1 only once for each sin we have committed, or can we confess the same sin several times? On that matter, there is a very famous story which professors of pastoral theology love to tell to their students. Once, an eighty-years old woman was confessing her sin of fornication to a priest. The priest said: « Well, you have already confessed this sin to me and received absolution ». The old woman replied: « I know, but it is such a pleasure to recall it! » 5) How long does it take? 1 minute, 3 minutes, 15 minutes, half of an hour? When should it be practised : before the Divine Liturgy? The night before Liturgy? Independently from the Divine Liturgy? It is obvious that when 30 people are waiting in a line twenty minutes before the Divine Liturgy, confession becomes rather a formality than a Mystery. 6) At what age are children expected to start coming to confession? How are they prepared? How do they perceive it : as a constraint, or as something they do willingly? Once, a priest was visiting a very ancient church during a pilgrimage to Italy with his pupils from Sunday school. As he was showing them the architectural specificity of that church, a young child came up to him and asked him: « Father, do you think you could hear my confession in that lateral chapel? » 7) Does the penitent expect the priest asking questions or does he expect telling him his sins by himself? Is the ministry of the confessor to be an inquisitor, or should he be a listener? A bishop once told me his experience of confessing in a monastery nearby Paris. It was after a very long Vigil service. He was quite tired and hungry, but before going to trapeza and having some rest, he had to confess an old lady. She began to tell him once again the same confession, as she did several times before. Quite exhausted and wanting to make the confession shorter, the bishop, who was a young priest at that time, told her: « Well, this you have already told me. Do you have anything else to confess? » The old lady replied, quite irritated: « Please, don’t interrupt me. Your task is not to speak, but to listen... » 8) What is the place of epitimia (ejpitimiva, penance) in confession? Could we apply literally the canons in our days? Is the penitent expecting receiving an epitimia? How is it perceived today? 9) Is confession only individual, or could it be corporate? We know, for instance, that St. John of Kronstadt (XX century), receiving hundreds of people for confession, practised corporate confession. Should it be private or public? Is it implies necessarily a personal contact, or could it be done through correspondence (mail) or via internet (e-mail)? Is there a 1 I would like to thank Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia for inviting me to participate in the colloquium on Confession and Spiritual Direction in the Orthodox Church on Mykonos, in October 2004. The present paper presents the results of some of our common reflection. 2 risk in the privacy of confession for the confessor being falsely accused of sexual abuse? Indeed, many priests are now scarred to receive people for confession in an empty church or in their office. 10) What about the secrecy of confession? In the times of Peter the Great in imperial Russia, priests were expected to reveal any conspiracy against the state. Today, is the priest expected to inform the police in case of sexual abuse? Recently, in France, a Roman Catholic bishop was condemned for not having denounced his priest involved in sexual abuse, although he knew about it from confession. 11) Who may hear confession? Any priest, including the newly ordained one, or only priests having been appointed by their bishop as confessors? Up until today in the Greek Church still only a minority of priests hear confessions. This is not something conferred automatically at ordination. Priests begin to hear confession only after having received a special blessing from their bishop. Therefore, two questions maybe raised: what is the training required to hear confessions? Is there any kind of supervision over the priests hearing confession? 12) How do we choose a spiritual father? Is he by necessity our parish priest, or can we choose someone else? Are we obliged to confess always to the same person, or can we go to different priests for confession? I recall once, when I was serving as a deacon in a cathedral, seeing people waiting in several lines for confession. One young man told me: « Today, I need a very quick confession. Therefore, I will go to this priest... » Three periods in the history of the mystery of confession In order to help us clarify our understanding of the question, we should say a few words about the history of the mystery of confession since, as M. Arranz once said, « the Byzantine penitential practice, as the one of all the other Churches, is the one which presents the greatest development »2. Following G. Wagner, we can distinguish three periods with regards the development of the practice of confession3. The first period is the classical period closely linked with the canons of the ancient councils and the Church Fathers. The penitential discipline had to deal mostly with major 2 M. ARRANZ, « Les prières pénitentielles de la tradition byzantine, 1ère partie », OCP 57 (1991), p. 89. 3 G. WAGNER, « Penitential discipline in the Oriental Tradition » (in German), Liturgie et rémission des péchés. Conférences Saint-Serge. 20e Semaine d’Etudes Liturgiques. (A. TRIACCA, ed.), Rome, 1975, p. 251-264 [=« La discipline pénitentielle dans la tradition orientale », La liturgie, expérience de l’Eglise. Etudes liturgiques. (AS 1). Paris, 2003, p. 67-80]. See also: J. ERICKSON, « Penitential discipline in the Orthodox Canonical Tradition », The Challenge of our Past, Crestwood, NY, 1991, p. 23-38. 3 sins: apostasy, murder and adultery, and therefore, confession was a very rare event, since it had to deal with major sins. It had three moments in its application: exclusion from the Church community (excommunication), period of penance (ejpitimiva), and finally, the reintegration of the penitent into the Church community (reconciliation). The power received by Church from Christ to bind and loose (cf. Mt 16:19) was interpreted precisely as the power to excommunicate and to reconcile. The moment of penance (ejpitimiva) was not regarded as a punishment but as a therapy. It was a period of trial, during which the Christian had to prove his willingness to reintegrate the community. This moment had four progressive stages of reintegration into the community and therefore there was four categories of penitents (provsklausi", mourners; ajkrovasi", hearers; uJpovptwsi", prostrators; suvstasi", standers). Each of these penitents stood in a different place of the church building and participated in different parts of the divine service: mourners would stand outside the door of the church, hearers — inside the door of the church in the narthex, prostrators would stand within the door of the nave, but attend only the liturgy of catechumens, and finally, standers would stand in the nave for the whole service but not receive communion4. At the beginning of this period — confession was public, since it implied the relation of the sinner and the Church community. The second period begins with the Kanonarion attributed to John the Faster, patriarch of Constantinople (582-595). Some scholars think that this document is in fact from the VIII or IX century.