Should Children Partake of the Lord's Supper?
A deep dive into paedocommunion
A perennial issue in Reformed circles is that of paedo-communion, whether children should receive the Lord’s Supper, at what age, and on what conditions?
For Baptists, this is obviously a non-issue, because you only baptize believers upon confession of faith, and only the baptized may partake of communion. Consequently, only believers of a mature age will take communion, so that problem kind of fixes itself.
However, for those of us who practice infant baptism, I’ve always thought it strangely odd to baptize children into the covenant family, and then deny them participation in the covenant meal. The Baptist scheme, whatever its failings, is at least logically consistent and coherent when it comes to children. Yet, as for me and my Anglican house, I want something covenantally coherent and comprehensive when it comes to children and communion.
Here is what I’m thinking!