A WHILE back I went to Iona with a group of children for a Children’s Assembly. We spent time together, playing, learning and worshipping. Then on our last day, we had communion. The children were allowed to take some of the baskets of bread and some of the baskets of grapes (we were using grapes to represent wine, which seemed very reasonable and practical) and take them round the hushed congregation.
They obediently stood at the end of the rows, passing the plates and moving on to the next row. None of them abused the privilege of taking part in communion with the church and all of them ate their piece of bread and their grape with a solemn attitude towards it. They all knew this was special and none of them was willing to put a foot out of place and treat it as any less than respectful. For years there has been some resistance to having children actively participate in the communion of the church.