Profession of Faith and Admission to Communion in the Light of I Corinthians II and other Passages

Abstract

This paper is offered as a preliminary contribution to the debate on the admission of children to Holy Communion. It attempts to examine the basis for the practice, current in many churches, of requiring some Profession of Faith or Confirmation as an essential precondition to participation in the sacrament. Accepting the need for theology to be based on responsible exegesis, the paper sets out to examine the passage 1 Cor. 11.27ff to which current practice has traditionally been traced. The paper then (section II) widens the discussion and advances the hypothesis that the communion services in the early church may not have been restricted to believers only: 1 Cor. 14.23 shows that it was possible for unbelievers to be present at worship, but without mention of the Lord's Supper. And so the hypothesis that worship normally comprised ‘word’ and ‘sacrament’ in the early church is tested on linguistic grounds from 1 Cor. 11 and 1 Cor. 14, to show the possibility of unbelievers' being present when the sacrament was celebrated. The implications of 1 Cor. 16.22 are then explored and the view advanced that it was not impossible for unbelievers to share in the sacrament—the Anathema in that verse being intended to warn participants (including unbelieving participants) in the sacrament to approach the Lord's Supper thoughtfully and carefully.