Why do we share the peace? What is confession? What is communion all about? (Teaching Communion Addresses)
Address 1 – Confession If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves. The writers of the Prayer Book loved a bit of Sin, and telling us how awful we all are. But is confession about beating ourselves up? What are we doing when we confess our sins? Actually, are we doing anything? Is it just our sins we’re confessing? We have confession because even though we’ve been baptised we still sin. We come because we’re people who believe in repentance. The Greek word for repentance is metanoia , it means changing one’s mind, turning from a destructive path. The whole of Jesus’ ministry was focussed on repentance. ‘Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.’ So when Jesus talks about repentance, he doesn’t mean just being sorry. He means turning from an old path to a new one, converting our lives to be in right relationship with one another and with God. Baptism is the ultimate sign of repentance, turning away from our old life and into a new life, but even though we’ve turned around, we...