The sacramental life

Why Confess to a Priest?

Orthodox confession is closer to a visit to a physician than to a court appearance, and the priest standing beside you is a witness rather than a judge.

Updated 2026-09-23 · 9 min read

In short

Orthodox Christians confess their sins aloud to God in the presence of a priest. The Church teaches that God alone forgives sins; the priest stands as a witness and a physician, not as a judge. Confession is understood as healing rather than sentencing. The practice rests on James 5:16 and on the words of Christ to the apostles in John 20:23.

The objection, taken at full strength

For many Christians the idea of telling one's sins to another man is not merely strange but objectionable, and the objection is a serious one. Scripture says there is one mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5). It invites the believer to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). It promises that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive them (1 John 1:9). No priest appears in any of those sentences.

Added to that are memories that cannot be waved away: clergy who used what they were told, systems in which access to God was rationed, and the long Reformation argument about whether forgiveness could be made to depend on an institution. Anyone raised with those memories is right to be careful. A reader who arrives at this page suspicious is not being difficult; he is being responsible, and this article is written for him rather than around him.

Where Orthodoxy agrees with you

Begin with the agreement, because it is larger than most people expect. The Orthodox Church teaches that sins are forgiven by God and by no one else. No priest forgives by any power of his own, and no Orthodox catechism claims otherwise. The Slavonic service book makes the point at the very start of the rite: before anything is said, the priest tells the penitent that Christ stands here invisibly, receiving the confession, and that he himself is only a witness, bearing testimony before God of everything the penitent says.

Orthodoxy also agrees that a Christian should confess his sins directly to God, constantly, without waiting for anyone. The daily prayers of an Orthodox layman are thick with it. Morning and evening rules include open acknowledgement of sin; the prayers before communion are almost entirely confession; the Jesus Prayer itself ends with the words “a sinner.” Nobody is asked to store sins up for a monthly appointment. Fr. Seraphim Rose, writing to a convert who had grown severe about such things, put the priorities in an order worth remembering.

So the disagreement is narrower than it first appears. It is not about whether God forgives, or whether a Christian may speak to him directly. It concerns one question only: whether the ordinary Christian life also includes speaking the thing aloud, once, in front of someone the Church has appointed to hear it.

The first and important thing is not 'rightness' at all, but Christian love and harmony.
Fr. Seraphim Rose, letter of 5/18 June 1979, quoted in Hieromonk Damascene, Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, ch. 84 (St. Herman Press, 2003)

James 5:16 and John 20:23

Two passages carry most of the weight. The first is from James, and its final clause is the one Orthodox writers underline: “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:16, RSV). The purpose given is not the settling of accounts. It is healing. The verse sits immediately after instructions about calling the presbyters of the church to pray over the sick and anoint them, which is why the Church has never read it as advice about casual conversation between friends.

The second is from the evening of the resurrection. Christ breathes on the apostles and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:22-23, RSV). Something is entrusted there to particular men, and the Orthodox Church understands that trust to have been handed on. Whatever the phrase means, it is hard to make it mean nothing.

Alongside these stand the plain descriptions of early practice. People came to John at the Jordan “confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:6). At Ephesus “many also of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices” (Acts 19:18, RSV). Public confession before the community is well attested in the first Christian centuries; the private form used today grew out of it, largely through the monasteries, as a gentler arrangement rather than a stricter one.

Healing, not sentencing

The image the Orthodox tradition reaches for is medical rather than legal. The church is a hospital, the priest is a physician who has been ill himself, and the sins named are symptoms rather than charges. Nothing is being decided about the penitent's eternal fate in those five minutes. Something is being treated.

This changes the tone of everything. A judge wants an admission; a doctor wants an accurate description. A judge is finished when sentence is passed; a doctor asks you to come back. When a priest gives a penance, which in Greek is an epitimia, it is meant as a prescription rather than a fine: a rule of prayer, an act of charity, a habit to break, occasionally a period of abstaining from communion, and always something aimed at the underlying illness.

Saint Gregory the Theologian, preaching on baptism, counted the baptism of tears among the washings God gives, and the Fathers commonly speak of repentance as a second baptism. That is the register. Confession is not a humiliation to be survived but the ordinary means by which a Christian is washed again, and again, for as long as he needs it, which is for life. Fr. Seraphim Rose was insistent that this inner dimension matters more than any external accuracy.

Being correct is the external side of Christianity. It's important, but not of first importance.
Fr. Seraphim Rose, talk on simplicity, 1979, quoted in Hieromonk Damascene, Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, ch. 87 (St. Herman Press, 2003)

Then why keep a witness at all?

If God forgives and the priest does not, the question sharpens rather than disappears. Why speak the words to a man? The Orthodox answer is not about authority in the first instance. It is about what sin does to a person and what is needed to undo it.

Sin thrives in privacy. Most of us can maintain an entirely sincere private confession that quietly edits the two or three things we do not intend to give up, and we can maintain it for years without noticing. Saying a thing out loud to another human being breaks the editing. It costs something, and the cost is the point: the shame that has to be walked through is itself part of the healing, and it is spent once rather than carried indefinitely.

There is also the matter of not being alone with it. A person who confesses only inwardly can never be told anything in return. He cannot be asked a question, corrected, or reassured that what he has been torturing himself over for fifteen years is not in fact the unforgivable sin. The Church keeps a witness so that the penitent can hear a human voice say that he is forgiven and may go in peace.

And the witness is appointed rather than chosen at random, precisely so that he is bound. He is answerable to his bishop, trained to say little, and held to an absolute seal. Confessing to a sympathetic friend carries no such protection, and friendships have been ruined by less.

What actually happens, step by step

The practical shape of it is much plainer than people imagine, and in a Russian parish there is no box, no grille and no anonymity. Confession is normally heard during the Vigil on Saturday evening, before the Liturgy on Sunday morning, or by appointment at another time.

What follows is the usual sequence at our parish in Kovan. It is worth reading once beforehand, because most of the anxiety people bring to a first confession turns out to be anxiety about the choreography rather than about the sins, and the choreography takes about a minute to learn.

A first confession may take longer, and that is expected; say so when you come, and ask for a time when the priest is not also trying to begin a service. Confession here is heard in Russian and in English.

You stand with the priest at an analogion, a sloped stand, usually at the side of the church. On it lie a cross and the Gospel book. Both of you face them; the priest is beside you rather than opposite you.
Others waiting keep their distance, and the conversation is quiet. If the church is full, ask for a time when it is not.
The priest may read a short prayer, including the reminder that Christ stands here invisibly and that the priest is only a witness.
You say your sins simply, in your own words. There is no formula to learn and no required vocabulary. Name the thing and stop; circumstances, explanations and other people's faults are not needed.
The priest may ask a question or give a short word of counsel. Sometimes he gives a penance, understood as medicine rather than punishment.
He places his stole over your head and reads the prayer of absolution, then you venerate the cross and the Gospel. Most confessions take a few minutes.

Preparing, and how often

Preparation does not require a technique. An evening of quiet is enough: the prayers before confession printed in any Orthodox prayer book, a slow reading of the commandments or the Beatitudes, and honesty about where the last weeks actually went. Some people find it helps to write a short list and tear it up afterwards; others find that writing turns into composition, which is a different activity altogether.

Two cautions are worth passing on. Do not confess other people's sins, which is the commonest way a confession goes wrong. And do not deliver a self-analysis; the priest does not need your theory of why you are like this, only what you did and what you would like healed.

Frequency varies between Orthodox Churches and even between parishes. In Russian practice confession customarily precedes communion, so a regular communicant confesses often. Greek practice is generally less frequent. Neither is a rule the individual sets alone; it is worth asking the priest what pattern suits your situation, and a sensible priest will not impose the same pattern on a monk, a nurse on rotating shifts and a mother of three.

If you have never done this

Three things are usually worth saying to someone considering a first confession. Nothing you bring will be new to the priest; parish clergy have heard the whole human range and are chiefly interested in whether you want to be free of it. The seal is absolute, with no exceptions for family, police, bishops or dinner conversation. And you may stop at any point, ask a question, or say that you have changed your mind and would rather just talk.

Orthodoxy holds this practice as part of the ordinary Christian life, and does not offer it as proof that anyone else's prayers have gone unheard. Where a person stands before God is God's business. What the Church offers is a witness, a prayer and a door out of the room you have been arguing with yourself in. Fr. Seraphim Rose ended a letter to a convert with a wish that serves as well as anything for a closing line here.

If you would like to talk about any of this, without committing yourself to anything at all, the priest at Kovan can be reached through the parish website, and a conversation over tea after the Liturgy is a perfectly normal way to begin.

May God keep your heart soft and filled with love for Christ and your fellow man
Fr. Seraphim Rose, letter of 25 May 1979, quoted in Hieromonk Damascene, Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, ch. 84 (St. Herman Press, 2003)

Common questions

Does the priest forgive sins in Orthodox confession?

No. The Orthodox Church teaches that God alone forgives sins. The service book has the priest tell the penitent at the outset that Christ stands there invisibly receiving the confession and that the priest is only a witness. The prayer read at the end asks God to forgive, and the priest acts by the authority entrusted to the apostles in John 20:23 rather than by any power of his own.

Can I not just confess to God alone?

You can, and Orthodox Christians do so daily; the morning, evening and pre-communion prayers are full of direct confession to God. The Church adds a witness because sin grows in privacy, because saying a thing aloud breaks the quiet editing we all do, and because a person confessing only inwardly can never be answered, questioned or told in a human voice that he is forgiven.

What actually happens at an Orthodox confession?

In a Russian parish there is no box and no screen. You stand with the priest at a sloped stand holding a cross and the Gospel book, usually at the side of the church, both of you facing them. You name your sins in your own words. The priest may ask a question or give counsel, then places his stole over your head and reads the prayer of absolution. It usually takes a few minutes.

How often should an Orthodox Christian go to confession?

Practice varies. In Russian tradition confession customarily precedes communion, so a regular communicant confesses frequently; Greek practice is generally less often. There is no single rule that applies to everyone, and the pattern is best settled with the parish priest, who will not ask the same of a monk, of a nurse working night shifts and of a mother of small children.

Is Orthodox confession confidential?

The seal of confession is absolute. A priest may not repeat what he has heard to anyone, at any time, for any reason, including to family, to civil authorities or to his bishop. This is one of the reasons the Church appoints a witness rather than leaving people to unburden themselves to friends, since a friendship carries no such protection and has often been damaged by what it was told.

What if I do not know what to say?

Say that, first; it is a common opening and the priest will help. Preparation can be as simple as a quiet evening with the prayers before confession from any Orthodox prayer book and a slow reading of the commandments or the Beatitudes. Name what you did rather than explaining why, leave other people's faults out of it, and stop when you have finished. Nothing needs to be eloquent.

Sources and further reading

Orthodox Church in America — The Sacraments: Penance — A standard English catechetical account of confession and repentance in Orthodox teaching.
OrthodoxInfo — Confession — Index of Orthodox articles and prayers on confession, from several traditions.
OrthodoxInfo — A Guide to Confession — Practical guidance on what confession involves and how to approach it.
OrthodoxInfo — Preparation for Confession — A traditional examination of conscience used by Orthodox Christians before confessing.
OrthodoxInfo — Proper Confession and Communion — On the relationship between confession and receiving communion in Orthodox practice.
Hieromonk Damascene, Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, ch. 84, “Pastoral Guidance” — Reproduced by permission of St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood; source of the letters of 25 May and 5/18 June 1979 quoted above.
Hieromonk Damascene, Father Seraphim Rose: His Life and Works, ch. 87, “Simplicity” — Source of the 1979 talk on simplicity quoted above.
Parish of the Dormition of the Mother of God, Singapore — services — When confession is heard at the parish in Kovan, and how to contact the priest.