Communion for Children: A Rookie Anglican Guide to Paedocommunion
(Editor’s Note: Views on whether small children should be admitted to Communion vary within modern Anglicanism, including disagreements within the Anglican Compass team. That said, our ministry president, Peter Johnston, here presents his case in favor of paedocommunion.)
If you are new to the Anglican way, you might be surprised to see children, including toddlers and even babies, receive Communion in some churches. This ancient practice, called paedocommunion, has always been practiced in the Eastern Church but was only recently restored in the West. It offers great spiritual benefit not only to the children who receive it but also to their families and congregations.
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In this guide, we’ll discuss the biblical basis for paedocommunion, focusing on the Passover meal as a type for Holy Communion. Children’s participation does not depend upon their complete understanding but instead prompts them to ask about God. We’ll also look at objections that arise from a particular reading of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. Finally, we’ll explore the benefits of paedocommunion, share practical advice for your family and church, and explain how paedocommunion is consistent with eucharistic discipline.
Hebrew Children Eating the Passover Meal
The night before God brought his people out of Egypt, he instructed them to sacrifice a lamb, to put its blood over their doors, and to eat it. Each household was to sacrifice its own lamb, or if the household was not large enough to eat the whole lamb, to pair up with a neighbor:
Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers’ houses, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons; according to what each can eat you shall make your count for the lamb.
Exodus 12:2-3
The instruction concerning household size strongly suggests that Hebrew children participated in eating the first Passover lamb. Moreover, Moses references children in his instruction for the ceremonial repetition of the Passover meal:
You shall observe this rite as a statute for you and for your sons forever. And when you come to the land that the LORD will give you, as he has promised, you shall keep this service. And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.
Exodus 12:24-27
Christian Children Eating the New Passover Meal
Why does this matter for Christians? The Eucharist, our service of Holy Communion, fulfills the Passover and its ceremonial repetition. Jesus is our new sacrificial lamb, the one who died to save us by his blood. In fact, it was the very Passover meal that Jesus transformed into the sacrament of his body and blood.
Just as the Hebrew children of the old covenant ate the Passover lamb, so do the Christian children of the new covenant. They receive bread and wine as sacraments of the body and blood of Christ, the whole family of God feasting together on the grace of God in Christ.
There’s another remarkable detail here. Did you notice how the Hebrew children reacted to the Passover ritual? It prompted them to ask questions about their faith—to learn more about the saving work of God:
And when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for he passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.
Exodus 12:26-27
Just as the Passover meal prompted the Hebrew children to ask questions, so does Communion prompt Christian children to do the same. In other words, paedocommunion does not depend upon complete understanding but instead prompts questions and a fresh recounting of the saving work of God.
An Unworthy Manner?
Those who oppose paedocommunion often do so based on a passage from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians:
Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
1 Corinthians 11:27-29
The argument against paedocommunion is this: if children are not capable of examining themselves and discerning the body of Christ, then they should not be given Communion, lest they eat or drink in an unworthy manner.
Discerning the Body
The above interpretation ignores the context of this passage and, therefore, misunderstands what Paul actually means by eating and drinking in an unworthy manner. What is that context? Paul is opposing a situation in which some people receive Communion while feasting with food and wine, while others have no food to eat at all and go hungry. To wit:
When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
1 Corinthians 11:20-22
Paul opposes the stunning absence of hospitality in the practice of the Corinthian church, which holds a meal but allows the poor among them to go hungry. They have not discerned the body of Christ, which includes all the people gathered, including the poor. That is why, in the very next chapter of his letter, Paul explains that the body has many members but remains one body:
As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.
1 Corinthians 12:20-22
In 1 Corinthians, Paul does not directly teach about children in Communion. But if we were to seek to apply his thinking to our question, his logic actually argues in favor of paedocommunion. Paul emphasizes that the church should not exclude anyone who is a member of the body, no matter how poor or weak.
Baptized children may be poor and weak, but they are members of the body of Christ. We should give them Communion, lest we eat and drink without discerning the body and eat and drink judgment on ourselves.
The Spiritual Benefits of Paedocommunion
The most obvious blessing of paedocommunion is for the children, who receive God’s grace through it. Believing as we do in the objective presence of Christ in the sacraments, what children receive in Communion is nothing less than the presence and blessing of God in Jesus Christ.
That Christ may bless children is demonstrated by the intentional welcome that Jesus himself gave them. Consider, for example, the story of Jesus blessing infants in Luke:
Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
Luke 18:15-17
Notice also how Jesus uses the infants’ presence to teach his disciples about the kingdom of God. When the disciples would prevent them from coming to Jesus, Jesus explains that the adults, in fact, must become like children to enter the kingdom of God!
The spiritual benefit of paedocommunion, then, is not only for the children but also for the adults who need a constant reminder that saving faith does not consist in the intellectual capacities only available to adults but rather in the more fundamental trust expressed more naturally by children.
A Personal Appreciation
On a personal note, the practice of paedocommunion has become an essential component of discipleship in my own family.
My theological conviction in favor of paedocommunion developed before I was married, mainly for the Biblical reasons outlined above. However, the idea remained abstract, and I would not have identified it as a central aspect of my Christian walk. At the time, attending a church that excluded children from Communion did not bother me.
However, once I was married and began to have children, this conviction became immensely practical. For my wife and me, bringing our infants, toddlers, and young children to the Eucharist became an essential part of raising them in “the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4, KJV).
Now, after years of this practice, our children (ranging from age nine to newborn) are eager to receive the grace of God in the sacraments every Sunday. It is not uncommon to see them literally dancing down the aisle. And each of our children is growing in understanding the grace they thereby receive. It is simply beautiful. As a family, paedocommunion is so central to our discipleship that we could not imagine any other way.
Practical Advice for Paedocommunion
Paedocommunion does introduce some practical challenges for the family, the church, and the clergy. My most essential advice is to practice patience.
There are very basic questions for the family, such as what to do with a sleeping baby or a child who does not want to come forward and receive. These are especially common in the case of young infants or when a family is just beginning to receive Communion together.
In such circumstances, it is best not to press the matter. We don’t need to wake a sleeping baby or force a reluctant child. When beginning anything new, it is best to make allowance for some adjustments as it becomes a new rhythm. In other words, be patient with yourself.
Patience is also essential for the congregation. As we saw above, the disciples themselves became frustrated with the attempt to bring infants to Jesus, and they probably had good reason! Most likely, the babies were loud and distracting! Congregations should be encouraged to see the presence of children at Communion as a reminder of the trust to which we are all called in Christ.
The clergy face a significant challenge in figuring out how to administer Communion in a way that includes children while also respecting the solemnity of the occasion and our eucharistic theology. Once again, patience is a good watchword. We do need, at times, to remind children of the weight and significance of Communion. This is to their own benefit so that they learn to appreciate the remarkable gift of Communion in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Paedocommunion and Eucharistic Discipline
Though paedocommunion has always been practiced in the Eastern Church, it fell out of practice in Western churches (including England) during the High Middle Ages. Nor is it envisioned in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which generally made Confirmation (or being “desirous to be confirmed”) the threshold for anyone to receive Communion.
More recent Prayer Books, however, including the 2019 Prayer Book, accept baptism as a complete sacramental initiation to the body of Christ, in continuity with ancient practice. Though there remains a variety of opinion within modern Anglicanism, the ACNA Constitution & Canons allow for paedocommunion:
The admission of baptized young children to the Holy Communion is permitted in this Province.
Constitution & Canons, II.4.3
The practice of paedocommunion should not conflict with the Anglican approach to eucharistic discipline. Our Prayer Book includes an Exhortation instructing that those receiving Communion should not be conscious of unrepentant sin in their lives. It also instructs clergy to withhold Communion in cases of notoriously evil lives or unreconciled interpersonal enmity.
The most dramatic examples of such cases typically would not apply to children. At the same time, some consideration ought to be given to eucharistic discipline when, for example, children are deeply and obviously at odds with each other. On a practical level, parents are more likely to be aware of such cases. Parents can be encouraged to guide their children to reconcile with each other before they come to the altar of the Lord.
Photo by Trinity Lafayette; digital editing by Jacob Davis.
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