NR #1995-071: CRC Clarifies Children's Communion Qualifications

 Since 1988, the Christian Reformed synod has held that younger children may
come to the Lord's Table but may do so only upon public profession of faith.
Synod this year rejected an attempt to allow children to come to the Lord's
Table without personal faith and adopted a system by which young children
would make a minimal profession of faith to be admitted to the Lord's Table
at a young age, followed by a later affirmation of commitment to the
doctrinal standards of the Christian Reformed denomination at or around the
age of 18 which would admit them to voting membership in the church.

NR #1995-071: For Immediate Release
CRC Clarifies Children's Communion Qualifications

by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer
United Reformed News Service

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (June 19, 1995) URNS - Prior to taking up women in office
on Monday afternoon, synod spent its morning session dealing with another hot
button subject that has troubled Christian Reformed congregations for the
last eleven years: the issue of whether, how, and on what basis young
children should participate in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

 Synod this year was faced with two study committee reports. While divided
study committees are nothing new in the CRC, these reports may have been
unique in Christian Reformed history: both gained an equal number of
signatures with the result that there was no majority or minority report.
Instead, the study committee reports were designated "Report A" and "Report
B."

 Each report represented positions which have reappeared many times in the
CRC debates over children at the Lord's Table.

 Report A, following a position taken by Synod 1988 and reaffirmed by
subsequent synods, argued that "the church is warranted in admitting to the
Lord's Supper covenant children who give evidence of faith and are able to
discern the body and remember and proclaim the death of Jesus." Also in line
with some previous synods, Report A argued that a departure from the
traditional CRC practice in which young people profess their faith in their
late teens or early twenties would necessarily require the establishment of
two professions: one in which much younger children profess a rudimentary
faith in Christ and another around the age of 18 in which persons who have
made an earlier simple profession give their full assent to the creeds and
confessions of the CRC. The first profession would entitle children to come
to the Lord's Table; the second would give them full voting rights in the
congregation.

 A markedly different approach was taken by Report B which argued that
children should be able to participate in communion with no profession of
faith at all. "The supporters of the 'covenant' basis for participation
interpret I Corinthians 11 in another way - covenantally; they point to our
practice of infant baptism, which is based on a covenantal reading of texts;
they refer to circumcision, the Passover, and infant baptism as all involving
the faith of one person standing in for another as precedents for
acknowledging the same in connection with the Lord's Supper; they point out
how the understanding and practice of profession of faith have changed; and
they point to the long tradition of paedocommunion in the church, a practice
that predates the establishment of any Reformed tradition," wrote the authors
of Report B.

 "The crucial question is this: is an individual expression of faith required
for participation in the Lord's Supper?" continued Report B. "Part of the
church has said yes, and part has said no. Strong grounds are brought forward
by the defenders of both positions."

 In a close parallel to the decision taken by synod on women in office,
Report B asked synod to "recognize that there are two clearly distinct
perspectives on the grounds for participating in the Lord's Supper -
individual faith and communal faith - and that both perspectives have support
in the tradition, theology, and practice of the church of Jesus Christ." As a
result, Report B asked synod to "allow room within our denomination for the
differing practices which each perspective requires," citing as grounds that
"there is probably no argument that is persuasive enough to cause advocates
on either side to change their perspective," that "this avoids the necessity
of having to say that one perspective is right and the other wrong," and that
"if a decision is made for one of the perspectives, a certain segment of the
church will be alienated."

 Report B recognized that its recommendations conflicted with the CRC's
doctrinal standards. "The creeds of the Reformed churches reflect our
traditional understanding that an individual personal profession of faith is
required for attendance at the Lord's Table," wrote the authors of Report B.
"If we decide, in good Reformational fashion and thought, that upon further
reflection, we now see things differently, or more clearly, either we can
edit the confessions to reflect our current belief, or we can let them stand
as historical documents and write our own confessions."

 Missing from both Report A and Report B was an affirmation of the historic
Christian Reformed position that only persons who are spiritually mature and
doctrinally knowledgeable should be admitted to the Lord's Table. As a
result, Classis Hudson, Classis Hamilton, and Classis of the Heartland
overtured synod to reject both reports and Classis Columbia strongly
emphasized the need for personal faith in urging synod to reject Report B.

 Although synod has been troubled with the issue of children at the Lord's
Table for a number of years, the question may be another example of an issue
on which changing the current Christian Reformed position is more important
to certain constituencies in the CRC than to the majority of the Christian
Reformed membership. According to the 1995 CRC Yearbook, only 7554 of the
CRC's 187,868 professing members are under the age of 18, compared to a total
of 106,311 nonprofessing members. A 1991 survey by CRC Publications indicated
that less than a sixth of CRC pastors had used the synodical guidelines for
public profession of faith by younger children or the trial form for that
purpose. Only 22% of CRC congregations reported professions of faith during
the last two years by at least one twelve-year-old child, 15% by an
eleven-year-old, 14% by a ten-year-old, 4% by a nine-year old, 3% by an eight
year old, and 2% by children under eight.

 When the question came before synod this year, the synodical advisory
committee dealing with the matter issued a series of recommendations largely
but not entirely following those of Report A. While continuing to count the
CRC membership in only two categories, "confessing members" who have been
admitted to the Lord's Table and "baptized members" who have been baptized
but not yet admitted to communion, the advisory committee noted that only
persons 18 or older who "have made a commitment to the creeds and confessions
of the Christian Reformed Church and the responsibilities of adult
membership" are to be accorded full rights of membership.

 The advisory committee also recommended a four-step procedure, largely drawn
from earlier synodical reports, for admitting children to the Lord's Table.
Children are first to express interest to a parent, church school teacher, or
other faith mentor in the church. The parents are then to discuss the meaning
of the sacrament with their children and if "convinced that this inquiry
arises from a genuine stirring of the Spirit in the heart of the child," are
to contact an elder or pastor of the church. The pastor or elder is then to
meet with the child, conduct a short process of preparation for profession of
faith based upon the meaning of the sacrament and a basic explanation of the
Apostles' Creed, Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer, and make a
recommendation to the council on the admission of the child. If the council
admits the child to the Lord's Table, the child "will make a public
profession of faith in a simple and appropriate manner during a regular
worship service."

 With an evenly divided study committee, few could have been surprised that
synod spent a great deal of time on the issue. Speaking for the Report B
portion of the study committee, Rev. Wayne Brouwer warned that adopting
Report A would downgrade the historic Reformed understanding of professions
of faith. "We believe it is not possible for a very young child to credibly
make a public profession of faith as we have historically understood that in
our tradition, and where that is not possible we believe there need to be
different requirements for participating in the covenant meal," said Brouwer.

 Rev. Richard Blauw of Classis Illiana opposed Report A for a different
reason, noting that the synodical discussion indicated that churches already
had different practices on admission of younger children to the Lord's Table.
"Is there anything in our church order that prohibits this?" asked Blauw.
"Why do we have to micro-manage our churches?"

 Elder Ned Nielsen of Classis Thornapple Valley told the delegates a story
about his four daughters, the oldest of whom made profession of faith at the
age of 12 despite the concerns of some council members that she could not
possibly understand the confessions of the CRC at such a young age. The
pastor, according to Nielsen, told the council that "when our children are
ready, we must bring them" to the Lord's Table and that "we must bring them
as young as possible before they are subjected to the temptations of this
world."

 Nielsen said his second and third daughters deferred profession of faith
until the traditional age and now decline to do so because their local
congregation refuses to allow women deacons even though they themselves have
no interest in serving as deacons. The fourth, said Nielsen, is ready to come
to the Lord's Table but not ready to make profession of faith.

 "I'm not sure if I'm for or against this procedure, but I just wish we would
stop wrangling and get on with it," said Nielsen.

 Although Report B was never formally considered by synod, it came in for
widespread criticism, especially from delegates who viewed Report A as the
lesser of two evils. Elder Henry Docter of Classis California South warned
synod that elders needed to be doing more, not less, teaching on the CRC's
doctrinal standards. Second Clerk Dr. W. Robert Godfrey reminded the
delegates that even the authors of Report B acknowledged that Reformed
churches had always required personal faith for admission to the Lord's
Table. Elder Kenneth Kuipers of Classis Holland followed up on the concerns
by asking Brouwer for clarification.

 "As an elder I've always assumed it is our responsibility to supervise the
Lord's Table," said Kuipers. "I'd like to hear Rev. Brouwer clarify publicly
whether there is any aspect of personal faith required for coming to the
Lord's Table."

 "Our committee is divided because some of us are saying if a child says 'I
love Jesus' he should come to the Lord's Table," responded Brouwer. "Others
of us are saying, let's not water down public profession of faith, but admit
children to the Lord's Table based on their status in the covenant
community."

 After adopting the key recommendation on the four-step profession of faith
for younger children, synod passed most of the other recommendations in short
order but sent the formal language of a necessary church order change back to
the committee for reworking.

Contact List:

Mr. Tim Penning or Mrs. Bonny Wynia, Christian Reformed Synodical News Office
 Calvin College, 3201 Burton St. SE, Grand Rapids, MI  49546 * O: (616)
957-8652 * FAX: (616) 957-8551

To Reach Delegates During Synod: (616) 957-6000
Pre-Recorded CRC Synod Hotline: (616) 957-8654



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