We often begin Christian worship with a leader up front who invites the assembly to confess their sins before God and neighbor. The idea is that we cannot sing and pray and receive the supper with honest hearts until we have told the truth about ourselves. And that’s a beautiful thing.
But sometimes we need to hear the institutional church reflect and apologize. The church has been declaring the importance of confession week after week for thousands of years, so why isn’t the church better at embodying this? Are we too ashamed or stubborn to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves? Are we unwilling to begin repairing what has been broken? Are we afraid mercy will not apply?
I have spent seasons in the pews unable to participate in this portion of the liturgy, not because I thought myself blameless, but because I did not trust the church with my confession. I could only hear the hypocrisy of an institution telling me the power of repentance, reparations, and reconciliation while I could see no real evidence of the system practicing what it preached. That part of the liturgy hurt my body and spirit, reminding me that the acknowledgment and apologies I longed for might never come.
The Christian church has shamed bodies, harbored predators, annihilated cultures, benefited from racism, and protected its own power instead of the people God calls us to serve. The church has caused bloodshed, broken spirits, and blamed victims. For all of its faithful, inspired, and holy work, the body of Christ is made of real people and has plenty to confess about fear, shame, and sin.
This section calls the institutional church to confess: to God, to its many parts, and to the people and places it has caused harm. My own faith has been healed by bearing witness to these confessions from a place in the pews. My leadership has been strengthened while standing with colleagues, together breaking the silence and handing over something true and vulnerable about the church. Our stories are varied, our stoles are colorful, and our spirits are unified by the desire to begin worship with guts and grace. As though we are really dying and rising. As though forgiveness is real.
There will be people in the assembly who need to receive this confession more than they need to give it, having been uniquely hurt by these very sins. Before leading these confessions in worship, make clear that participation is, of course, an invitation and not mandatory. Consider offering thanks to God for the people who are able to attend worship in spite of being harmed by the institution and asking comfort for those who do not feel safe or welcome in worship at all.
Living God, we have come to offer public apology
for the way your holy church benefits
from a repressed sexual ethic at the expense of God’s people.
A brief silence.
We confess that we have taught human sexuality
in ways that have promoted shame and embarrassment
instead of power and beauty.
We are truly sorry and humbly repent.
We confess that we have misused the gospel of Jesus
to decimate cultures and languages around the world,
and to condone oppression, racism, and misogyny for generations.
We are truly sorry and humbly repent.
We confess that we have heard God’s creation of male and female
as a binary set, one or the other, exclusive and simple,
which has underestimated the beautiful spectrum of God’s image
and condoned homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia.
We are truly sorry and humbly repent.
We confess that we have pitted the fullness and mystery
of God’s creative image against its own self,
discerning beauty and value according to
the social norms of patriarchy instead of the teachings of Jesus.
We are truly sorry and humbly repent.
We confess that we have too often described
the feminine helper in Genesis as a foolish temptress,
responsible fo...
