Good afternoon all, I was just reading through the Commination in our BCP. One of the final prayers read by the Minister is this: "O LORD, we beseech thee, mercifully hear our prayers, and spare all those who confess their sins unto thee; that they, whose consciences by sin are accused, by thy merciful pardon may be absolved; through Christ our Lord. Amen." My question is: is this prayer an absolution? Kind regards, David. (UK)
An absolution would have the words 'you' in it when refering to the person/s seeking absolution, I think, when declaring a pardon from The Lord, rather than 'those', 'they', 'whose', This seems more like an intercession to me. .