Thanks you Fathers, one and all My practice in the past has been one of evangelical counselling, rather than confession. The I did in my office. But I have been asked twice now to hear the confessions of parishioners and to grant advice and absolution that did not correspond with my idea of counselling...which I still do, of course. As our church is so small and there really isn't room for a confessional, I have heard these confessions at the altar rail with the penitent facing the altar while I sat to the Gospel side. This was a very moving experience for both myself and the penitent and the results were far more satisfactory than many hours of counselling in my office. Anonymity is hardly the point in my mind. BTW, has anyone watched the first episode of Ballykissangel? A parishioner purchases an automatic confessional that opens and close with a touch of a button, has a fax machine inside, etc. Hilarious! Thank you all once again. If I had the space I would install a confessional today... J.+ > > From: "Michael Ward" <mward@...> > Date: 2006/09/15 Fri AM 08:37:15 EDT > To: <faithandlife@...> > Subject: RE: RE: [FaithandLife] Re: Confessional > > There are snippets of this in the introduction to "Celtic Christianity" in > the Paulist Press "Classics of Western Spirituality". By the way: one thing > anyone will quickly notice is how different real Celtic Christianity was > from the New Age fluff that goes under that title today. All one has to do > is read some of the Irish and/or Welsh penitentials to see that: they were a > lot more severe in dealing with sin than we are today! > > But the whole "soul friend" idea of the early Irish Church finds its > parallel in the "staritz" of the Russian Orthodox tradition. > > MLW+ > > -----Original Message----- > From: Mark Clavier+ [mailto:anglican@...] > Sent: Friday, September 15, 2006 8:18 AM > To: faithandlife@... > Subject: Re: RE: [FaithandLife] Re: Confessional > > Mike+, > > That's actually my approach. I've done away with the whole anonymity > business as it's a bit daft in a church my size. I'd know who was > confessing behind the screen and he or she would know that I knew. > > So, instead, I meet privately with the person for a while, discussing > problems and sins that are weighing most heavily and providing what guidance > and comfort I can. 9 out of 10 times the biggest issue is the person being > unable to forgive him or herself. Once we've talked it out, we then go into > the church where a formal confession can be made and absolution given. > > Mark+ > > -- > To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: faithandlife-unsubscribe@... > > -- > To unsubscribe, send ANY message to: faithandlife-unsubscribe@... > >