Confession is perhaps the most misunderstood of all the sacraments. It is a new beginning, a means of renewing one’s hope for eternal glory, and of encountering again the forgiveness of the Father. Concerns about the Church’s care for the vulnerable, safe-guarding, means that the absolution confidentiality of what is said in private confession, the ’seal’ of confession, is both misunderstood and attacked by many today, both within and outside the Church. In what is sometimes called a ’therapeutic’ society, which self-care is understood and the hope of repentance is not, how what is the connection between what secular and ecclesial counselling and forgiveness? Finally, in an age which there are calls for the Church, organisations, and governments to apologise for things which took place in previous generations or centuries, how do we understand corporate responsibility, guilt, and forgiveness?

Although the practice and theology of confession have varied among the different traditions of the universal church, and yet there is enough in common for Anglicans, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox Christians to be united in cherishing the same gift.

Our conference will gather an ecumenical array of speakers from these different traditions to consider some of the pastoral challenges and contemporary issues that are being faced by clergy today in the ministry of hearing confessions, and by the Church and Christians more generally. This will include, among other concerns, how confession relates to the commitment to safeguarding and the protection of the vulnerable, to the inviolability of the seal, and to the wider significance of confession in a culture that preaches tolerance without practicing forgiveness.

We hope that this colloquium will be not only interesting, but also a source of encouragement for ordinands, seminarians, and clergy across different ecclesial traditions. This conference can also serve as a form of formation or education for those preparing to hear confessions, seeking renewal in this ministry, or looking to the hope which the Church offers the world through the gift of renewal and reconciliation.

The colloquium includes a public lecture at 4pm on Wednesday 25th February by The Rev'd Fr Ben Jefferies:

‘Dr. Pusey on the Effects of Absolution: Catholic but not Roman’

Abstract

Dr. Pusey heard more confessions in the 19th century than any other single priest in the Church of England. As is well known, his personal exercise of this ministry, together with his public defense of its lawfulness and usefulness in the Church of England, single-handedly made auricular confession a core element of the catholic revival. Less well known is the significant difference between Pusey's own theology of absolution and that of his successors. As auricular confession became popular (and popularly written about), the theology of auricular absolution which Dr. Pusey had presented came to be elided with the standard Roman Catholic teaching. By the 1920s, Anglo-Catholic clergy taught no different than their Roman counterparts, namely, that Absolution not only restores the soul to a state of grace, but cleanses the soul as thoroughly as the waters of Baptism had once done. This was a teaching that Pusey explicitly repudiates, as being of human origin and bringing a false-comfort to the Christian. Dr. Pusey’s understanding of absolution, the effects it has on the soul, the role it plays in the sanctification of man, and its relationship to Christ’s own judgment at the Last Judgment all differ markedly from the views that would become regnant among later Anglo-Catholic theologians. An exploration of Dr. Pusey’s own views reveals a coherent theology that comports more harmoniously with the patristic (and monastic) emphasis on the Christian life consisting of continual and ever deeper repentance. This exploration suggests a fresh re-framing of how this important ministry is taught about and exercised in the life of the Church today.