From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!CAD:tektronix!tekmdp!dadla!dadla-b!hutch
Newsgroups: net.misc
Title: Re: Religious Matters
Article-I.D.: dadla-b.319
Posted: Sun Jan 30 00:57:27 1983
Received: Mon Jan 31 03:14:04 1983

Vicki Klick says that the Catholic church is the only church with a formalized
confession, as far as she knows.

Well, ok.. Actually, the Catholics have mandatory personal confession to a
priest.  Other churches, especially the Episcopal (Anglican) have fromalized
(formalized, that is) confession, but except in cases where the individual
feels it to be necessary, the confession is said in a group prayer before
Communion is served.  The typical wording is "forgive me for that which
I have done that I ought not to have done, and for that which I ough to have
done but left undone"  which pretty thoroughly covers it.  In a lot of the
churches which have gotten away from the more Biblically based Christianity
and into the new, community-awareness new-left church (ala Rev.  Sloane of
Doonesbury)  the confession is often left out, but then they also serve
Communion to anyone regardless of whether or not they are Christians.

Anyway, the more strict biblical-based practice is, confession of sins to
a priest (or another, trustworthy believer) and a sincere repentance which
included restitution if possible, was required before Communion could be
taken.  Since the Holy Communion is the means whereby the believer becomes
"one with Christ" (you should pardon the wording) and the early church
members had DAILY communion, it was possible to do such things.  In the
modern churches, Communion is only served at special times, unless the
Priest is asked especially by a member of the congregation.  So, they
dropped the requirement for restitution before restoration of sanctity.

Not afraid to tell you more than you care to know,

Steve Hutchison
(Tektronix)