Lesson video

Hi everybody and welcome to today's lesson on Christian practises.

My name is Mrs. Day and I will be taking you through today's lesson.

Today we are going to look at the topic of confession.

You might have heard of this before, but today we are going to look at it in more detail and figure out exactly what it is and how it is practised within Christianity today.

So what do you need for today's lesson? It would be great if you could make sure you have a pen or a pencil, some paper or a notebook to write on and different coloured pen so that you can mark your own work.

If you need to pause the video now and go to get one of these, please do that now.

So, what exactly will we be focusing on in today's lesson? So firstly, we are going to look at the definition of confession.

So what does that word mean? Then we will look at confession in the Roman Catholic Church.

So how is it practised in that church? And then finally accountability in the Protestant Church.

So the Protestant equivalent of confession and how that works.

So firstly, let's have a think about what confession actually is.

This is a word that I'm sure you will have heard before.

I wonder if you were to give a definition, what that would be? You can pause the video now and have a go at coming up with your own definition of confession.

I'm sure lots of you have great ideas.

But when you confess something, it's when you admit that you're guilty and you might have heard this word the most in terms of the courts in the criminal justice system.

If someone confesses that they have done a crime, that means they have met that they are guilty.

So, if you confess something it's you be admitting your guilt.

It's admitting what you have done.

And that is exactly the same when we apply it to Christianity.

We're going to look at that in more detail now, but it is exactly the same.

It's this idea of confessing what you have done wrong.

So admitting your crimes or your sin.

Remember we looked at the word sin.

Sin just means, actually God, I'm going to do what I want.

I'm going to reject you.

So if you were to confess that it means admitting that you have done that.

So you might think of an image like this.

When you think of confession in the Catholic Church and what's happening in this image is that priest is listening to someone who is confessing what they have done wrong.

We are going to look at why this happens, but this still happens today in the Catholic Church.

And this is a very widely practised action.

So we will look at this in slightly more detail now.

Firstly, let's have a look at some definitions.

So, reconciliation, this is simply the restoration or the relationship.

Confession is the acknowledgement of one sins or wrongdoing.

So, acknowledging your sins or what you've done wrong.

And a sacrament is an outward sign of an inward grace.

So something you do outwardly that signifies something that's happening inside.

If you want you can pause the video and cover these and try to remember the meanings.

So, let's think about this question.

Highest confession practised in the Catholic Church.

So, this is mostly a Catholic practise that we are going to think about for the first part of this lesson.

But I wonder, do you know anything about how confession is practised in a Catholic Church? Here we return to the image that I showed you earlier and another image.

And it's this idea that people go to the church to confess their sins.

So they will use items of furniture like this so that the person can generally hide their face, but they will say what they have done wrong and the priest will then either grant them forgiveness or not.

So we will talk about this in slightly more detail.

But this is where you might see images like this before.

So, let's now read through some of these notes together.

So, confession is a key part of the sacrament of reconciliation.

Can anyone remember what reconciliation means? So it's the restoration of a relationship.

So, obviously if someone has sinned that relationship against God has been damaged.

So confession is a key part of this sacrament.

So, Catholics believe that Christians should confess their sins in order to restore their relationship with God.

And the aim of confession is to provide healing for their soul and regain grace from God.

So we're seeing here there are two main aims of confession.

Number one, to provide healing for their soul so they can forgive themselves but then also to gain grace from God.

So, why do they do this? Let's look at two verses from the Bible that give us some explanation as to why Catholics believe this.

So it says, then he breathed on them and said," receive the Holy spirit.

If you forgive people's sins, they are forgiven.

If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven".

And this was from John chapter 20, and this is Jesus speaking to his disciples.

So, here we can see that Jesus appears to give them authority to forgive sin or not to forgive it.

So today Roman Catholics think of the priest as having this authority, to forgive people's sins or not to forgive them.

So what then is the role of the priest? So the priest acts as in persona Christi, which simply means, that you texts the place of Christ.

So, in persona means in person.

So the the priest is Christ in person.

So he takes on this role which means he has the power to forgive sins, which is why Catholics will go to confess to him because they believe that he can forgive their sins.

So how does confession work? So there's three main steps in the Catholic Church.

Firstly, we have contrition and this is admitting your sorrow for the sin committed.

So saying sorry, confessing that you're sorry for what you've done.

Secondly, we have confession and this is the actual disclosure of the sin.

And then thirdly, we have penance and this is doing something to make up for the sin.

So, the priest might say, okay, but in order to make up for that, you have to give this much to charity.

You have to volunteer this event, and that might make up for the sin.

Or you might have to go to apologise to certain people.

So you have contrition, confession and penance.

If you want you can pause it here and try to get these words into your head.

Great.

What I would love you to do now is to pause the video here.

And I'd like you to repeat these definitions three times.

To say it out loud, I know you might feel like you sound a little bit silly, but it's the best way to get into your head.

So say out loud, say the word and the definition.

And then once you start to feel more confident, you can cover up the words or cover up the definitions and see if you can remember them.

And when you're finished doing this and you're really confident, you can press resume.

Great.

So hopefully now you're all experts on our key terms. Contrition, What does it mean? Sorrow of for the sin committed, good.

Confession? Disclosing your sin.

And penance? Doing something to make up for the sin.

Really well done.

Now we are going to have some quick fire questions to see how much you have learned.

So, hopefully you have been paying attention and are ready to do this.

So number one, to confess means to admit what you have done wrong.

Is that true or is it both? You can point at the screen or you can write down your answer.

Five, four, three, two and one.

It is of course true.

Well done.

To confess something is to admit what you've done wrong.

Secondly, confession is practised in all denominations of the church.

Is that true or false? Five, four, three, two and one.

That is false.

So it's mainly practised in the Roman Catholic Church and we will look at the equivalent of confessional Protestant Church in a second.

Confession is important for Catholic Christians to have healing for their soul, true or false? five, four, three, two and one.

The answer is true.

Remember we said they believe that their soul is healed and that they gain God's grace.

The priest takes the place of Jesus as people confess their sins to him.

Is that true or false? Five, four, three, two and one.

That is true.

Remember we said the priest literally takes on the role of Jesus and is able to forgive sins.

Penance is the first of the three stages involved in confession.

True or false? Five, four, three, two and one.

The answer is false.

Penance is the final stage that takes place during the confession.

And that's when they go out and do something to make up for what they have done wrong.

Knowing that you have went through lots of those quick fire questions, you should feel really confident with this topic.

So what I'd like you to do is to pause the video here to complete the task.

There are four questions for you to answer.

I would like you to do these in full sentences and when you're finished, you can press resume.

So question number one.

What is confession? Question number two.

Why do Catholics carry out Confession? Question number three.

What is the role of the priest in confession? And question number four.

Explain the three different stages of confession? So when you're finished you can press resume and we will go through your answers.

Great.

Really well done.

Let's go through some of these together.

So number one, what is confession? Confession in the Catholic Church is an act of acknowledging sins or wrongdoings.

With a different coloured pen.

You can write down some points around what you got.

Question number two.

Why do Catholics carry out confession? Catholics carry on confession in order to heal their soul, but also to regain the grace of God.

So remember two points, Heal their soul and regain the grace of God.

Question number three.

What is the role of the priest in confession? The role of the priest in confession is to play the part of Jesus, forgiving the sins.

This is called in persona Christi.

And number four, explain the three different stages of confession.

So the first stage of confession is contrition.

And this is when Catholics express their sorrow as a result of their sin.

The second stage is confession.

When they admit they're wrongdoings.

And the final stage is penance, when they will perform acts to make up for it their sin.

Really well done on that.

Remember, you can go through with a pen and add extra things to what you wrote down.

Well done.

So now you're an expert on how the Catholic Church do confession.

But now we need to consider if this happens in the Protestant Church.

So we know what happens in the Catholic Church, but what happens in the Protestant Church? So firstly, Protestants do still believe in confession, but this looks slightly different to how it looks in the Catholic Church.

A Protestant may practise personal confession to God, which means they will pray to God and personally confess what they have done.

But they don't feel the need to go to a priest to do that.

Sometimes in Protestant Church services, the minister will leave space for people to confess their sins to God and to ask for forgiveness.

So, Protestants do view this as important, but it's more personal confession rather than confession through a priest.

And I want you to have a look at this challenge question, which part of the crucifixion story might this belief in personal confession originate from? So think back to Jesus's death on the cross.

Why might Christians believe that you can not personally confess your sins to God? I'll give you a minute.

You can pause the video if you want to think about that.

So the answer which I'm sure some of you got is you can probably remember the idea of the temple curtain ripping in two from top to bottom.

Before that point, the people had to go through the priest to talk to God.

But Protestant Christians believe that actually when Jesus died, that removed that barrier.

But human beings could have their own relationship with God and they could come before God personally.

Secondly, Christians also practise confession in another way.

Protestant Christians practise accountability to other Christians.

So often, they will have one or two other Christians who they are really honest with about what they find hard.

And they do not believe that that other person can forgive them.

That's not the idea.

So they don't think, if I tell my friend this they can forgive me.

They think actually this idea of accountability is really useful because it makes me not want to sin.

If I've told my friend that I find that hard, they'll ask me about it.

So, it's not this idea of being forgiven, but it is this idea of being accountable to other people that their actions matter.

So we've got personal confession and accountability to other Christians.

But why do they do this? So they don't go through a priest, but they still feel the need to confess their sins to try and live in a certain way and to apologise when they do.

If we look at this Bible verse, it reveals to us why they do this.

So it says, "but if we confess our sins to God, he will keep his promise and do what is right.

He will forgive us our sins and purify us from all wrongdoing".

And that's from 1 John 1:9.

So here we see this idea that Protestant Christians still want to confess their sins because then they believe that God will forgive them.

So why to Protestants do this? So know that they confess their sin to God.

They ask for forgiveness and they're comfortable to other Christians.

So what we're going to consider now is why, Why, what's the point? Why do they need to do this? So what I would like you to do now is to complete the following task and in full sentences, I would like you to explain why Protestants do the following two things.

So why do they confess their sins to God? And why are they accountable to other Christians for their actions? So you can pause the video here and write down in full sentences your two reasons and then we will go through these answers together.

So, let's go through these answers together.

So why do Christians confess their sins personally to God? You can use another coloured pen to add some notes to your answers.

Protestant Christians confess their sins personally to God because they believe that if they confess their sins God will forgive them.

They believe that they can go straight to God and don't need to go through a priest.

So you can write down any of that, that you would like to take.

And Secondly, why are they accountable to other Christians for their actions? Protestant Christians are accountable to other Christians as they believe that this will help them to live their Christian lives.

They believe that community is important as Christians can encourage each other to follow Jesus more.

So, here we see this idea of living in community and helping each other to follow what Jesus wants.

Well done on that.

Great.

So now we're going to put all this to the test and see how much of an expert you are on the differences between Catholic and Protestant attitudes to confession.

So, the first one, this denomination must confess their sins to a priest.

Is this a Catholic Church or the Protestant Church? You can point to the screen or you can write down.

Five, four, three, two and one.

The answer is of course the Catholic Church.

Well done.

This denomination believes that sin can be confessed to anyone.

Is this the Catholic Church or the Protestant Church? Five, four, three, two and one.

This is of course the Protestant Church.

They believe that they can confess their sins to their friends or just to God.

This denomination believes that the priest acts as Jesus in confession.

Is this Catholic or Protestant? Five, four, three, two and one.

And the answer is of course Catholic.

If you are a Protestant and you went to your minister or priest to confess your sin, they would not think they have the authority to forgive you.

They would of course talk to you about it and pray with you, but they would not forgive you, as they would say, only God can do that.

This denomination believes that it is important to confess your sins.

Is this Catholic or Protestant.

Five, four, three, two and one.

And as you can see this was a trick question because actually both of them think it's important to confess your sins.

It might be for different reasons, but they both believe that it is really important that Christians confess their sins.

Thank you so much for joining with me today.

It's been great to have you here for our lesson on confession.

If you would like to share any of your work with Oak National please do that by asking a parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter and tag @OakNational or #LearnwithOak.

Again thank you so much.

It's been great to see you here.

And I really hope that you feel like an expert on the topic of confession now.

Now to prove how much you've learned.

Why don't you have a go at the summary quiz.