can i have the bread & wine during a Cof E service as long as I have been christened?

[littletownofmeglethem]

Is anyone who is christened allowed to go up for bread and wine / blessing at a CofE church?

I did at Easter, but afterwards wasn't sure if I was meant to .

Anyone, christened/ baptised or not, is welcome to go up for a blessing. If you are CofE you usually get confirmed before receiving communion: if you are another denomination (Baptist, URC etc) you are welcome to receive communion in the CofE if you receive in your own church.
Having said all that most churches will neither know nor mind what you choose to do if you are a visitor. If you plan to attend your local CofE church regularly, it would be a good idea to have a chat with the Vicar about the whole communion thing, as they are likely to want you to have some instruction +/- confirmation.

I might speak to the vicar at some point, DD needs to be christened next year so I'll have chance to chat then.

you have to be confirmed to take communion. you can go up for a blessing but not the bread and wine.

I'm going to look silly now at the xmas eve service if I don't take the bread and wine like last time . I hope the vicar doesn't remember I had it last time.

why is this information something I had missed .

Do what you like - God won't be offended - but it's considered polite/conventional/thoughtful to get confirmed before partaking.

You won't look silly, btw, some people don't take the bread and wine for temporary religious reasons, eg they feel they're working through a sin situation.

he won't remember!

Don't worry about it - the vicar may not remember anyway, and if he/she does and asks you about it later you can always explain and it starts you talking about getting confirmed anyway!

I'm C of E and our ruling is that if you love our Lord Jesus Christ you are welcome to come and share communion.

After all - the apostles weren't confirmed!

That's my thinking too, lilibet. I have been thinking of late that we are all a bit hung up on the official Church side of things, and sometimes forget that a) it's meant to be a family, not a bureaucracy, and b) this whole ritual all started as a supper with friends.

Confirmation classes are very interesting anyway, so OP might enjoy them.

Also it's what's in your heart that matters.

From a theological point of view, it really isn't a big deal - if God meets with you through the bread and wine, and you haven't been confirmed (or even dare I say it baptised!) then why would that be a bad thing? It's just that churches have rules, and "normal practice" is that adults ought to get confirmed if they are believers, because confirmation is when you confirm the things your parents said at your baptism and this is your chance to say them for yourself.

I did think that God wouldn't mind anyway .

Up here my church (Scottish Episcopal, part of the Anglican Communion) had a big debate about this 15 or so years back, and decided that there was no theological reason for children to have to be confirmed before they could receive communion. So DS has been taking communion since he was 3. If and when he decides to get confirmed, that is something different - an adult statement of faith - but there's no need for him to be excluded from communion in the meantime.

We do it, as you know, as Jesus instructed us to do in remembrance of him at the last supper before he was crucified. So if you believe that Christ died for your sins and you are taking the bread and wine in remembrance of him and his sacrifice, I think it is fine.

Maybe when a convenient time comes up, you might want to have a word with your vicar. It might be interesting to do a confirmation course and helpful for clearing up little uncertainties like this one?

sorry if that's confusing, i was addressing the OP directly, not you Misteltoe

The only prerequesite for communion is baptism (and loving the Lord).

mind you, all my vicar talks about at the moment is breastfeeding as I've just had DD. She is hilarious .

petty differences, rev?

Yep, it's a well-known fact that all the tiny little rules of your denomination are very very important as soon as you decide to sign up with them, and continue to be very very important right up to the moment when your denomination decides to change them. And all the different tiny rules of other denominations are very very silly right up to the moment when your denomination adopts them, at which point they become very very important. The joys of "Christianity"... sigh...

IME COE churches are not posting angels with flaming swords in front of the alter to keep people back. However if they were, wouldn't that draw in the crowds eh?!

You are supposed to look within yourself and ask yourself whether you are in communion wtih God generally at the moment or whether there is something you have allowed to stand between you (like something you are doing these days or things you have recently done that should be sorted out first). Not everybody does do a lot of soul-searching though. HOwever I have sometimes not taken communion although normally I would for that reason.

The vicar is for sure not checking things off in a book. She sounds nice.

that's altAr, sigh so many tipos today

Depends on the church doesn't. I was confirmed in May (C of E) but before that it was made clear I shouldn't take communion until I have been 'done'. However, they did say that if people took communion without being confirmed they weren't going to cast them from the altar and send down a plague of locusts on their house - or even mention it - it was just the preferred way of doing things!

However my PIL are methodist (FIL a minister) and they said they don't care who takes communion so long as they are in the right state of mind. Just as well, because before I knew all the 'rules' I took communion whenever DH and I visited their church. Probably a more inclusive way of doing things although it never felt right to me because I didn't really understand what it was all about.

Do what you are comfortable with.