What He Said ...
Brother Maynard has an excellent post today on children taking communion. He gives his own brief history with communion, which I, for obvious reasons, do not share. He ends with a beautiful description of their reasoning for including children in communion at their church, which I do share. It's really lovely ... enjoy your read.
posted by Sonja Andrews at 9:40 AM
3 Comments:
I must respectfully disagree with the idea that kids should partake so they don't feel left out, which is the reasoning I'm taking from the post. I'm part of the "understand it, on some level, at least, before you do it -- it should be meaningful to you" mentality. I'm not gonna think less of a parent who allows their 2-year-old to partake; it's just not for me and mine.
This feels to me like one of those instances where Emergent thinking is champing at the bit to toss out every "rule" or "guideline" we grew up with. But that's always going to be a matter of opinion, of course.
Hi Kate, I don't think he was saying include everyone even if they just think it's sancitified snacks. I came away from his post thinking exactly what you're saying ... that it on some level it should be meaningful and we shouldn't exclude people based on age just because we think it can't possibly be meaningful for them, yet. Which is the camp I fall into. We talk about communion and what it means with our children. As they grow up, they understand more and more about what it means. As do I, frankly!!
On the other hand, I wouldn't (for my own family) want my children taking communion before we'd had a chance to have a conversation about it at least once first. So they know that it's not just snacks in the midst of service; that there is on some level something different about this bread and this "wine"(er ... juice).
On the third hand, I agree and commiserate (sp?). In all "emerging" change movements there will be those who want to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water. Those who just toss off the traces with no thought given to why they were there in the first place. I think it comes down to the families and how they operate. There are some families in which a two year old might be able to understand and receive communion. Others ... not so much. But I think the parents know best what their children are capable of and what sorts of God-conversations are happening in the home. We're all different and trying to make a blanket rule for things like this (which don't effect eternity after all) sort of seems silly.
And now I've said far more than I ought ... and need to clean this wreck of a house for the Design Team meeting tonight. ;-)
I appreciate the reply! As with so many things, I agree, it's not a matter of a hard and fast rule. And after I commented, I thought, "I should have added that this isn't one of those things that's THAT important, really."
I mean, I think communion is beautiful and a very important element of faith. At least, it is for me. But it's not ... well, just not that back-breaking an issue, whether a child of X age does it or not. :)
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