By Rev'd Sam Crane
4th July 2025

It has been horrifying this week to hear the heart-chilling news about the abuse of children in childcare centres and beyond. These acts of evil are not how God designed us and run contrary to God’s way of loving sacrificial service. For those who have children in childcare, we are appalled by what has transpired and pray for you, especially those affected by this abuse.  

I recognise that it has also been a tough week for all men who work in early childhood and even primary school education. They may have experienced the understandable but hurtful reflex of fear that would resort to gender based solutions to prevent criminal acts. We pray for them too, that they would be able to serve their communities faithfully without fear of unwarranted gossip or suspicion. 

This week is another sad reminder of the grave hurt we can cause one another and that there is so much work to be done to create a safe culture for all people, especially for the young and vulnerable. A safe culture does not seek to merely blame, but seeks to create ways where we can mutually help each other and care for each other, and protect one another even from ourselves. A safe culture equips each of us to bravely and lovingly call out abuse even from those we implicitly trust.

At Saint James, we are committed to creating a safe culture for all people. This requires constant vigilance and the willingness for each of us to play our part, including the completion of safe ministry training and clearances, which is a requirement for all staff and volunteers at Saint James. We are committed to this because we believe this is a way we can love our community with the love of Jesus, which never causes harm but transforms and heals and restores all who experience it. 

Would you join me in prayer? 

Lord God, have mercy on all the families affected by the recent news of the abuse of children. We cry out for justice against those who committed these acts of evil, bring them to repent and turn from this wickedness. God, we ask for you to bring healing to those harmed, may none of this evil linger in the bodies or minds or souls. God, we also ask for protection for young people and those who are vulnerable. God, pour out your Spirit on all people that we may know the peace and comfort that only comes from you, Jesus. Amen

If any of you would like to meet to discuss or receive care and prayer, please don't hesitate to reach out.

By Rev'd Sam Crane
5th June 2025

Every once and a while I have a conversation with a parent or grandparent about what to do with children at communion. Should they take the bread and cup? Should they come only for a blessing? Do they need to be baptised or confirmed? I thought I’d put these words together and share with you all.

In the Anglican tradition, those who come to receive the bread and the Cup at communion are those who have been baptised, usually as an infant, and then confirmed as an older teenager or adult. Anglicans also welcome to the Lord’s table those who have been baptised at other Christian churches, Baptist, Catholic, Presbyterian et al.

Baptism is the sacrament that marks the offer of grace from Jesus to an individual and is the outward moment of membership into the church. This sacrament is then confirmed in confirmation. Now, this is a physical sign of a spiritual reality. This means that when someone trusts in Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, and submits to Jesus the king, they are in that moment a Christian. In professing Jesus as Christ they are in that moment adopted into God’s family, filled with the Holy Spirit, and are a member of the church whether or not they have yet been baptised with water. Baptism in water is the outward sign of the gift of salvation that is effective when faith bears fruit. This is true for baptisms by full immersion, by sprinkling with water, for baptisms of children and infants or adults.

For infants or young children who were baptised, the rite of confirmation was to affirm that they had now taken hold of this faith for themselves and were in their own faculty, pursuing Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. This then was the moment they were welcomed at the Lord’s table to take communion. However, this is an historic pattern to encourage discipleship and not a command from Jesus in the Bible. 

Communion is a gift of God’s grace each and every time we take it, whether as juice or wine, whether as bread or a wafer. It is a gift that in the eating and drinking, we partake by faith the very body and blood of Jesus which was offered in our place for the forgiveness of our sins. This is a gift for everyone who trusts in Jesus, young or old, Anglican or not, and whether they have been baptised or not - I do consider Baptism as an act of obedience that I encourage everyone of faith towards as the outward sign of a spiritual reality. 

Practically what this means is that for children who are raised in the Christian faith by their parents, who read the Bible at home together, pray as a family, and worship together regularly in a church they are committed to, there is no biblical reason for that child to not partake in communion. They of course won’t be able to explain it the same way as an adult or a scholar, but they are a child of God and can then partake in God’s gift to his church. So I welcome all such children to take the bread and Cup as we worship together. For grandparents who are encouraging faith in their grandchildren, the only caution to this is if the parents of your grandchildren are not Christian - note an outward sign of baptism doesn’t make a person a Christian. In this instance, the parents may or may not be supportive of you raising them in faith. If this is you, we could discuss this together to navigate a way forward.

Here is a portion of an article by former Anglican Archbishop Glenn Davies, entitled "The Lord's Supper for the Lord's Children" which appeared in Reformed Theological Review 50.1 (1991) 12-20. I find this conclusion sums up my thoughts well:

The Lord's Supper is for the Lord's people. It is a meal in celebration of the redemption he has won for us. All those to whom this salvation belongs are appropriate guests at the Lord's Table. Participation in the Lord's Supper is participation in Christ. To deny this meal to those who participate in Christ is a travesty of the one body in which we all share. 

Our covenant children are members of Christ's body and share in Christ. They should therefore share in the one bread and drink and the same cup of blessing which we drink. However this is not to suggest that the warnings  1 Cor 11:27-30 have no relevance for children. Participants in the covenant meal are required to be in covenantal fellowship, and that covenantal fellowship is evidenced, through God's grace, by covenantal obedience. Yet it is a mistake to judge the faithfulness of an individual solely in terms of mature self-understanding or an articulate profession of faith. 

Evidence of covenant standing is not correlative to one's age. An understanding appropriate to the age, however, does not necessarily imply that children have the ability to articulate the meaning of the sacrament in adult thought forms. 

Conversely, an inability to give an articulate explanation of the relationship a child sustains to his or her parents does not mean that they have an incorrect understanding of their relationship to them. There is much that may be deficient about our own understanding of the Lord's Supper, as indeed there was for the twelve apostles who first took of it with their Master. Yet the immaturity of their understanding did not prevent their participation in that Supper. 

The importance of Paul's warnings, however, is whether or not the child is remaining faithful to the covenant in which he or she stands. To deny them the Lord's Supper is to effectively discipline them in the same way we would do a covenant breaker. Their exclusion is tantamount to identifying them with the world, unworthy to eat and drink the body and blood of the Lord. 

Yet our children belong to God, by the sure promise of his Word signed and sealed in baptism. Let us then feed them with the blessing of Christ, and teach them through the Supper that the privilege of union and communion with Christ belongs to them. The Lord's Supper is for the Lord's Children.