First Solemn Communion

At St. James’, we encourage all baptized Christians to receive Holy Communion, even infants and young children. At the same time, we observe that at a certain age children start to wonder about what Holy Communion means. Their questions are not only an opportunity to educate but also to nurture a deeper devotion to Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. First Solemn Communion classes give children a place to ask their questions and to grow towards their full stature as participants in the priesthood of the faithful.

For the first seven hundred years of the Church’s existence, Christians everywhere were always baptized and confirmed on the same day. New Christians were given Holy Communion immediately after baptism and confirmation, whether they were babies, children or adults. The Eastern Orthodox churches maintain the practice of infant communion to this very day.

By the Middle Ages in Europe, however, adult confirmation had become the doorway to Holy Communion. Eventually, the laity were barred from receiving from the cup and in reality very few lay people received Communion more than once a year.

For this reason, the Protestant Reformation laid a new emphasis on restoring Communion in its fullness to lay persons, although confirmation was still regarded as the normal route to the Lord’s Table. Further reforms to this practice occurred in the Roman Catholic Church in 1910 when Pope Pius X lowered the age for reception of Communion to 7 years of age. While not a return to infant communion, it was a step back toward early Christian practice.

The Episcopal Church began to examine its theology of baptism in the 1970s and 1980s, concluding that baptism is full initiation into the Christian community. Holy Baptism alone grants full admission to the Lord’s table and the sacrament of Holy Communion.

Nevertheless, the decision of when children begin receiving Holy Communion belongs to the family. Parents are the God-given caretakers and stewards of their children’s physical, moral and spiritual welfare.

Communion classes remain helpful. Upon reaching the age of discretion and moral accountability, children who have received Holy Communion from an early age may still need to reaffirm their desire to remain communicants.

At St. James’, we call our service “First Solemn Communion.” We acknowledge that, on this occasion, the children of our parish who have reached the age of discretion now come to receive the Most Sacred Body and Blood of Christ “with due preparedness, solemnity and reverence.”