Confessing sins properly

Have we lost the art of confessing sins aright, whether we use a classic or a modern liturgy?

Modern liturgists have given the impression to many Anglicans that the content of the classic Book of Common Prayer [BCP] is far too much focused on sin and penitence for sin and not enough on what they call “Celebration.” If the righteous dead could speak to these creators of modern liturgy, they would say with one voice: “the humble confession of sin is the beginning of the praise of God because it praises his righteousness and holiness and looks to his mercy and grace; also confession of sin is truthfulness before the God of all truth; and, further, did not the only-begotten Son of God enter space and time, become man, in order to die for our sins and be raised for our justification before God the Father?”

Let us look at the beginning of Morning/Evening Prayer as we find them in the classic edition of the BCP, that of 1662.

The first thing to note is that the Penitential Introduction (Sentences, Exhortation, Confession of Sin & Absolution) was added in 1552. The first BCP of 1549 began at the Lord’s Prayer without this introduction. Since it was obvious that this service was to become a public service (an not merely an office to be used before Holy Communion), the authorities decided that it needed an introduction to prepare people both for the fullness of praise through Psalm and Canticle and for the hearing of the two Lessons from the Old and New Testaments.

The Sentences are presented as a Call from God to his people to assemble together before him, the Almighty Lord, and to recognize who and what they are in his presence. The Exhortation by the Minister continues the Call of God and specifically calls for confession of sins as the people assemble to praise and thank God and to hear his holy Word.

Then there is the Confession – a general confession, meaning a confession of many different sins rather than of one particular sin. The rubric before it (also found in the American BCP1928) states: “A general Confession to be said of the whole Congregation after the Minister, all kneeling.”

To the Anglican traditionalist this instruction may seem not to be abnormal. Does it not require all present, Minister and People, to say the Confession and do so kneeling rather than sitting or standing? And is not kneeling the normal and customary Anglican way to pray (unless infirmity of body prevents)? The answer to both questions is yes, but there is more here in this rubric than at first meets the eye.

The people are to say the confession after not with the Minister. That is, he is to read a portion and then they are to repeat it, and so on from beginning to end. In contrast, in other prayers, e.g., the Lord’s Prayer, Minister and People say it together, he with them and they with him! The places where the Minister is to stop are indicated by a Capital Letter (upper case) of the word beginning the next portion. Thus:

Almighty and most merciful Father [repeat], We have erred and strayed from they ways like lost sheep [repeat], We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts[repeat], and so on.

Why this method? Not because the people in 1662 could not read and needed to be prompted! But in order to provide more time for self-examination, reflection and genuine involvement in confessing one’s sins to Almighty God, the Father, in genuine sorrow and with penitence. After this, the Absolution from God by the Priest, as he declares that those who truly believe and repent will be pardoned and absolved, truly sounds like music from heaven.

It would seem that the sixteenth century reformers in the ecclesia anglicana, the Church of England, both knew their Bibles and the hearts of men better than do we, and certainly better than those who claim to provide divine liturgy for our use, in the continual stream of new services for public use from liturgical commissions of the western provinces of the Anglican Communion.

These sincere male and female liturgists and all of us need to learn from the Psalmists and Prophets, from Jesus and his Apostles, and from Archbishop Cranmer and the standard divines of the Anglican Way, that the humble confession of sin before God is the beginning of the true praise of God, the Holy One.

“Let us confess our sins unto Almighty God….”

The Revd Dr Peter Toon Michaelmas 2005