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)