==Confidentiality==
From "Guidelines for Clergy" ([[Orthodox Church in America]]):
:"The secrecy of the Mystery of [[Penance]] is considered an unquestionable It has been a rule in through the entire Orthodox Church. Theologically, the need to maintain the secrecy of confession comes from the fact that the priest is only a witness before God. One could cleric may not expect reveal any sins he hears during a sincere and complete confession if the penitent has doubts regarding the practice . A violation of confidentiality. Betrayal this rule is a violation of the secrecy of confession will lead to canonical punishment canons and, in Orthodox Russia, of the priestcriminal law.
Some instances of the rules are:* "The secrecy of the Mystery of [[Penance]] is considered an unquestionable rule in the entire Orthodox Church. Theologically, the need to maintain the secrecy of confession comes from the fact that the priest is only a witness before God. One could not expect a sincere and complete confession if the penitent has doubts regarding the practice of confidentiality. Betrayal of the secrecy of confession will lead to canonical punishment of the priest." From "Guidelines for Clergy" ([[Orthodox Church in America]])* St. [[Nicodemus the Hagiorite]] exhorts the Spiritual Father to keep confessions confidential, even under strong constraining influence. The author of the Pedalion (the Rudder), states that a priest who betrays the secrecy of confession is to be deposed. The Metropolitan of Kos, Emanuel, mentions in his handbook (Exomologeteke) for confessors that the secrecy of confession is a principle without exception."<ref>From ''Guidelines for Clergy'' (Orthodox Church in America)]</ref> *In St. [[Nicodemus the Hagiorite]]'s ''Exomologitarion'', he writes:
:"Nothing else remains after confession, Spiritual Father, except to keep the sins you hear a secret, and to never reveal them, either by word, or by letter, or by a bodily gesture, or by any other sign, even if you are in danger of death, for that which the wise Sirach says applies to you: "Have you heard a word? Let it die with you" (Sir. 19:8); meaning, if you heard a secret word, let the word also die along with you, and do not tell it to either a friend of yours or an enemy of yours, for as long as you live. And further still, that which the Prophet Micah says: "Trust not in friends... beware of thy wife, so as not to commit anything to her" (Mic. 7:5).
:* For if you reveal them, firstly, you will be suspended or daresay deposed completely by the Ecclesiastical Canons, and according to political laws you will be thrown in jail for the rest of your life and have your tongue cut out. Secondly, you become a reason for more Christians not to confess, being afraid that you will reveal their sins, just as it happened during the time of Nektarios of Constantinople when the Christians did not want to confess on account of a Spiritual Father who revealed the sin of a woman. The divine Chrysostom both witnessed these things and suffered because of them on account of his trying to convince the people to confess. It is impossible for me to describe in words how much punishment this brings upon you, who are the cause of these things."<ref>St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite, ''Exomologitarion: A Manual of Confession'', trans. Fr. George Dokos (Greece: Uncut Mountain Press, 2006), p. 191f.</ref> * St. [[John of the Ladder]] writes: :"At no time do we find God revealing the sins which have been confessed to Him, lest by making these public knowledge, He should impede those who would confess and so make them incurably sick."<ref>St. John of the Ladder, ''The Ladder of Divine Ascent'' (Homily to the Shepherd), (Brookline, MA: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1979), p. 243. (This homily is missing from the English translation of Fr. Lazarus Moore)</ref> * The Byzantine [[Nomocanon]] states, in Canon 120: :""A spiritual father, if he reveals to anyone a sin of one who had confessed receives a penance: he shall be suspended [from serving] for three years, being able to receive Communion only once a month, and must do 100 prostrations every day."<ref>translated by Fr. Alexander Lebedeff from the [http://www.synaxis.info/synaxis/8_law/f_byzantine/nomokanon.html Slavonic text]</ref>
==Service Order for Confession==