ASKED AT THE CHURCH DOOR

Q : Nowadays small children can receive communion: why do they no longer wait until after Confirmation?

Stephen Elkins-Williams' reply: Some history is helpful here. In the early days of Christianity, people were received into the Church through Baptism, the laying on of hands by elders (Confirmation), and participation in the breaking of bread (Holy Eucharist). Of these three sacraments of initiation, only the last was repeatable.

After Constantine converted to Christianity in the 4th Century encouraging others to do so as well, the Church faced a logistical challenge: how to initiate in greater numbers? In the Eastern Church, the bishops delegated the priests to baptize and confirm and even admit infants to the Eucharist. That practice continues to this day. In the West, the bishops directed the priests to baptize and admit to communion, but to defer Confirmation until a bishop could travel there himself. Confirmation, then, was separated from Baptism and evolved into a sacrament of maturation.

In England in the Middle Ages, Holy Eucharist was also separated from Baptism as a tool of ecclesiastical reform (not for theological reasons). People were not allowed to receive communion until they had studied their faith and been confirmed, thus providing a needed renewal of the Church. That practice continued through the Church of England and into the Episcopal Church until only a few decades ago. Confirmation was considered to be what made one a full member of the Church.

With the liturgical renewal movement of the 20th Century based on historical studies and resulting, in the Episcopal Church, in the 1976 Book of Common Prayer, Baptism was again placed at the center of things. Anyone who is baptized is considered a full member of the Church and eligible to receive communion. Confirmation is recommended as a "mature, public affirmation" of one's faith but is placed in the Prayer Book among "Pastoral Offices" and not required.

Theoretically, then, even babies are allowed to receive communion, as they are in the Orthodox Church. In practice, clergy generally encourage parents to include their children in communion when they are interested enough to ask to be and when they have some rudimentary sense that this is a unique and special way for Jesus to be present with us. Just as, through participating regularly in Thanksgiving dinner, children grow into a deepening sense of its meaning, so too do they do so with active participation in the Eucharist. This strengthens them throughout their formation as Christians and nourishes them with God's sacramental presence.

If you have a particular question you'd like addressed in this column,
please send it to info@thechapelofthecross.org

Send items for inclusion in future "Cross Roads."
The deadline is the first Thursday of the preceeding month.

© 2005 The Chapel of the Cross