"We have concluded that when the principle of racial division (i.e. phyletism) is juxtaposed with the teaching of the Gospel and the constant practice of the Church, it is not only foreign to it, but also completely opposed, to it. We decree the following in the Holy Spirit: 1. We reject and condemn racial division, that is, racial differences, national quarrels and disagreements in the Church of Christ, as being contrary to the teaching of the Gospel and the holy canons of our blessed fathers, on which the holy Church is established and which adorn human society and lead it to Divine piety. 2. In accordance with the holy canons, we proclaim that those who accept such division according to races and who dare to base on it hitherto unheard-of racial assemblies are foreign to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and are real schismatics."
Constantinople...1872
Re: Confession
Posted by L. A. Passes (LAP) on 12/23/2007, 2:15 am, in reply to "Confession"
Dear Fr. David,
There are also other reasons why confession is not practiced as often as it should. In my early years of married life we attended an Orthodox Church in the South. A young priest right out of the seminary replaced the older priest and it was not long before his wife had spread personal information about people in the congregation. I was very close to one of them and she told me that this information was told to the priest in confession.
Many years later, living in the North now and also attending an Orthodox Church, a similar incident happened. A young teen went to confession and the priest revealed the confession to the parents. The family left the church. Many of us were puzzled as to how a priest could reveal what was told to him in confession because of the "seal of confession." I was told that in the Orthodox Church the priest is not bound by the "seal of Confession as a priest is in the Roman Church.
(LAP) on 12/23/2007, 2:15 am, in reply to "Confession"