CD at St. Stephen's Episcopal: The Cleric as a Religious Confidante

More like an adviser in a major subject at a college or a mentor on the job at a business.  The Reverend Martin Smith last Sunday at St. Clement's Church and the Incarnation, Washington, DC in the Columbia Heights area of town spoke on his theology of reconciliation.  He thought the one-on-one relationship between a cleric, given confidentiality status in a confessional setting, has advantages that permit the confessor to open up freely without recrimination.  After the service ended, the Rev. Susan Walker and I began to muse over the possibilities of promoting a more intimate setting, where parisionher and cleric could discuss issues confronting the former in his religious quest not just for forgiveness, but for spiritual growth and development.  We seemed to share the same opinion: we need to promote the mentorship idea in the churches.

I recall growing up from the age of 10 without a father in my life.  My mother reached out to her friends to find some minister who could provide me with religious insight and teachings pertinent to my maturity level.  She latched on to a cleric she had been introduced to in Buffalo, prior to her divorce from my father and our move to New York City, where my mother received additional training in law at NYU.  It was from the time of the move till the time I graduated from graduate school myself at NYU, the spiritual mentorship of the cleric my mother kept in touch with ended, that I benefited from that relationship--including his advice related to my Christian commitment.

Rev. Martin Smith pointed out in his sermon that the fact that a relationship that kept confidential what was said (or, admitted to a minister in the confidence of the 'confessional setting') permitted a frank and open evaluation of how to improve upon and highlight one's religious values is something that is not always available in a group situation.

In any case, I found that Rev. Martin Smith's discussion of the confessional confidentiality of a relationship between the parishioner and a spiritual mentor to be an appropriate description of something I had experienced during the days of my youth with my mother's ministerial friend as my "advisor-spiritual mentor."