Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!rutgers!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: llo@nuchat.sccsi.com (Larry Overacker) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Infant Communion Message-ID: Date: 19 Dec 90 09:33:58 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Houston Public Access UNIX Lines: 54 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article ecmath!tim@uunet.uu.net (Tim McLarnan) writes: >My understanding is that in the Western Churches, this >is not the pattern. (Are there exceptions?) >Instead, children are excluded from receiving the >Lord's Body and Blood until they reach a certain age. > I grew up in the Lutheran church, and their practice at the time was to baptise infants, and allow communion only after confirmation. Today, communion occurs earlier and prior to confirmation. This was in the Lutheran Church in America, now part of the ELCA. >I'm interested in the rationale for what seems to me >like baptism followed by instantaneous excommunication. > >Naturally, this query is directed mostly at people from >traditions which baptize but do not commune infants; >but I would also be interested in comments from people >in denominations that baptize only adults. How do you >explain to your kids that fundamentally the church is >an adult affair? What do you do with Christ's >injunction about allowing the little children to come >to him? How do you feel about all this? > Our Moderator Adds: >[Generally the concern is that the communicant must be able to >"discern the body", as Paul said. ... stuff deleted ... -clh] Our moderator's explanation agrees with my understanding of the reasoning used by the Lutheran church. Frankly I disagree with this, and that disagreement was one of my reasons for leaving the Lutheran church for the Orthodox church. I believe that faith is a gift from God that in no way depends on our ability to think or reason. It is not a cognitive process. Infants can and do have faith. There is ample evidence for this from the Old Testament (esp. Psalms). To have cognitive skills as a prerequisite for faith leaves me wondering about people who, even as adults, are unable to think or reason at a normal level. Faith is simply contigent upon being human and then having a trusting relationship with God. Infants are able to trust. In Erikson's model of human development, the first developmental task of children is to resolve the issue of trust versus mistrust. This task is complete before the child is a year old. This full trust of a child on a parent is precisely the kind of faith that I believe we should have in God. I also believe that the sacrament of the Eucharist is the single most potent sign we have of Christ's presence. It gives real strength and power to those that partake of it. To deny it to anyone who is a member of the Body of Christ seems to me to say, "Live the Christian life, and follow Jesus. But don't use that really good tool you have, that helps you in your walk." In Orthodox terms, we are on a journey [theosis] for which the Eucharist is the appropriate food to help us grow. Larry Overacker Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it. bertolt brecht