ChildrenandCommunion

Children and Communion

Announcement to Parish, Palm Sunday 2009

Last Sunday I told you that on Wednesday the Church Council would be debating and voting on a resolution to apply to the Bishop for permission to admit baptised children to Holy Communion before they reach the age for confirmation.  First of all, let me tell you that the resolution was passed by the PCC by 15 votes to three.  The meeting on Wednesday went on till nearly 11 p.m.., so I think I can truly say that the matter was very carefully considered.  Quite a few of you sent letters and emails to the PCC secretary, expressing both opposition and support, and these were all read out in full.  Others of you had had conversations with PCC members and these were all reported.

Let me briefly deal with concerns raised.  Some of you have said that you do not feel that children who may be as young as seven are able sufficiently to understand what they are doing when they receive Holy Communion.  Certainly, whatever age we are, we should all do our best to be as prepared and aware as we can be when we come to the sacrament.  However, the receiving of Holy Communion does not depend on an intellectual understanding of what is happening.  The kind of understanding that is needed is an understanding of what it means to be unconditionally loved – and this, we trust, is the experience of all our children.  The grace of the sacrament can never be deserved by any of us.  As the Prayer of Humble Access from the Prayer Book says, ‘We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies’.  This goes for children and for adults alike.

The second issue which has been raised is to do with the practicalities of our worship on Sunday morning, especially the point in the service at which the children would need to come in.  This has exercised the Church Council greatly over several meetings, and has been the reason for delaying a decision until now.  It was not until a group visited the Abbey in St. Albans a few weeks ago that we found a pattern which we feel can work for us.  If this is your concern, let me reassure you that both Parish Communion and Sunday School will continue very much as previously.

So what happens next?  First of all, our Family Communion services will continue according to the established pattern, usually on the first Sunday of the month.  On the other Sundays there will be one difference that you will notice, and the churchwardens and I feel that this may very well turn out to be an improvement.  Instead of coming in during the administration of communion, the children will come in before the Lord’s Prayer is said.  This means that there will be a slight pause between the Eucharistic Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer, possibly with a little bit of music, giving us all a chance to reflect before receiving communion.  The change to this pattern will take place on the Sunday following our May Family Communion, i.e. 10^th May.

Once the Bishop’s permission has been obtained we shall start to think about preparing children for Holy Communion.  There is some excellent material available to help children get ready for this important step in their Christian lives.  Conversations will take place with parents who feel that their children may be ready to take this step.  Probably during the autumn a course of preparation will be held, and then at some stage in the autumn there will be a special Sunday when a group of our children receive Holy Communion for the first time.  The Common Worship Initiation Services book provides a special rite for this occasion, and it is absolutely clear that this is not a substitute for confirmation but a step towards it.  The decision as to when a child is ready to start receiving communion will be made by parents and clergy, listening of course to what the child him- or herself has to say.

At some point between now and the autumn I shall be inviting Canon Stephen Lake , the Sub-Dean of St. Albans, to come and speak to us.  The group which visited the Abbey found their conversation with him to be extremely helpful.  Canon Lake has also written a book called ‘Let the Children Come to Communion’, which some of us have read.  Incidentally, if you have a copy and you’ve read it – and especially if it’s got ‘Parish of Norton’ stamped inside it – please could you let me have it back!  But I have ordered some more copies, so if you would like one please speak to me.

The decision is now made, and I believe that there are exciting times ahead.  I know that some of you have misgivings, but all I can say is that parishes which have made this decision before us all seem to say that it has been a growth point not just for the children, but for everybody.  What I now ask is that we pray for one another, young and old alike, as we journey together.