Children And The Eucharist

The three pillars of Anglicanism when setting doctrine are scripture, tradition and reason. I shall now use these three pillars to explain my position.

By Scripture.

First of all Jesus said that the Eucharist was for all.

Matthew 26:27
Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, Drink from it, all of you.

Also many theologians say that the feeding of the four thousand and the feeding of the five thousand are miracles that point to the Eucharist.

Matthew 14:21
The number of those who ate was about five thousand men, besides women and children.-

Matthew 15:38
The number of those who ate was four thousand, besides women and children.

Besides The Kingdom belongs to such as children.

Matthew 18:2-4
2He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Furthermore it is not for us to stop them receiving from him.

Matthew 19:14Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom

Matthew 19:14Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

Mark 10:14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Finally, to refuse a child is to refuse Christ.

Mark 9:37"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."

By Tradition

First of all The Eastern Church has always allowed children to partake of the Eucharist. The Western Church hasn’t always disallowed children to partake of it either.

To start with individual parishes in The Western Church choose to refuse children communion until eventually an emphasis was put on confirmation to the point where one was deemed a second class citizen of Heaven and not worthy to receive it without being confirmed..

There also appears to be a complete lack of rules about who can receive and who can’t receive in the early church.

The early church was more community based then institutionalised and children were part of the Christian community. Christian children received the Eucharist as Christian children were fed to lions

By Reason.

Simply put, to say that a child can receive the sign of the covenant (baptism) and then say they can not partake of the covenant meal is ridiculous.

Jesus said “Do this in remembrance of me” to say children can except Christ but can’t partake in remembrance of what he has done is also ridiculous.

Also to say that the Kingdom belongs to a little child and then say they don’t understand the Eucharist is also ridiculous.

Reason takes precedence over superstition. Children are not superstitious as a rule and therefore do not adhere to superstitious ideas concerning what the Eucharist is. This means their understanding can be greater than that of many adults.