Children and Communion

The question of whether children should be allowed to participate in Communion or not falls into a gray area, when one takes a look at the many different viewpoints of denominations, congregations and families. Some believe that a decision for Christ must be made before participation, or baptism undergone. Others would address the issue by searching for a cut-off age, that a child must reach before they can participate. The list goes on.

As a child, my parents told me that I was not old enough to take Communion. I cannot remember what the reason they gave was, but they made it out to be a ‘thing you do when you get older’. When I started at a Catholic high school not long before my eleventh birthday, I was faced with a problem. We attended mass weekly for the intermediate years, and most of my classmates, having gone through the Catholic rite of First Communion in primary school, were eligible to participate in Communion. My parents told me to refrain from participating.

To be honest, I didn’t really know when I was supposed to start partaking in Communion. I made a decision for Christ when I was eleven, but I still wasn’t allowed to for several years. As far as I know, however, I don’t think my parents knew I had made a decision for Christ at that stage. (I now consider myself fortunate for being able to bypass Communion at mass, because I had my first (and last) Communion wafer at my Grandmother’s Catholic funeral when I was fourteen and it was disgusting. I haven’t had Communion at a Catholic mass since.)

Being an adult serving in Children’s Ministry, and having participated in communion at my own church for many years now, I recently gave the matter some thought. I believe that children should be allowed to participate in communion if they wish to do so, regardless of the opinion of their parents.

The origins of communion lie in the Jewish family meal known as the Passover. This meal dates back to the time of Moses, commemorating and celebrating the Jewish exodus from Egypt, which brought freedom for the Israelites. The Passover is a feast that is celebrated as a family, by the whole family, children included. Children in Jewish families were brought up from birth learning about how God delivered their nation from slavery and into the Promised Land.

Here we can draw parallels between the Jewish celebration of the Passover and the Christian celebration of Communion. We celebrate Communion to remember how Jesus delivered us from our slavery to sin and brought us into his kingdom. This belief is at the centre of the Christian faith, and we teach it to our children from a very young age. It makes no sense, then, that we should exclude children from Communion, when we should be celebrating, as a family, and as a church family, what Jesus has done for all of us. Salvation is not exclusive to adults. Children are as much a part of the church family as adults. If a child understands what Jesus has done, then they should be allowed to participate in the celebration of it.

Setting some sort of cut-off age is dangerous because it gives the impression that one has to reach a certain age before they are fully accepted into the church family and have the same privileges as adults. Every child will be ready at a different age, and it is up to the child to decide whether they wish to participate or not. Even if they do not understand fully the meaning of the celebration, they should still be able to participate as it will be part of the learning process for them. If very young Jewish children participate in the Passover with their family before they fully grasp its meaning, then why can’t we give our children the same opportunity? I have joined in family celebrations of Christmas since birth, even though I didn’t know what it meant for the first few years.

Finally, Communion is a form of worship, and we encourage children to worship God in various ways, not limited to singing, from a very young age. We praise God for what he has done when we partake in the bread and wine (or grape juice). Children can, and do, praise and thank God for what he has done, and Communion is a great way to do this as a church family, together.

Communion isn’t an age-restricted ritual. It’s a family and community celebration, and a form of worship. Let’s invite our children to join us as we partake in it.

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