Church Tradition and Culture: No Admission of Children to the Holy Communion

The author discusses the prohibition of entry of baptized children in the celebration of Holy Communion as practiced by most congregations in Christian Church of Java (Gereja Kristen Jawa/ GKJ, Bahasa Indonesia). Drawing from the research conducted on the principle teachings (Pokok-Pokok Ajaran/PPA, Bahasa Indonesia) of GKJ, the author explains that there are inconsistencies in the implementation of PPA-GKJ. On one hand, GKJ understands that the Holy Communion is a symbol of life in God’s family. On the other hand, baptized children are not included within God’s family, which is the reason why they are not allowed to attend Holy Communion. There are two main reasons why this happens. First, difficult requirement for the permission to attend Holy Communion. Second, strong traditional Javanese ideology to exclude children from adult activities. The author employs Double perspective from Roberth Schreiter to analyze church tradition and culture to show that excluding children from Holy Communion contrasts to the main essence of Holy Communion.

Even though the first reason is not mentioned, it does not mean that they ignore it.
In order to answer question number 128 and 129, the verses used as reference  emphasized that Jesus's command for His followers to celebrate the sacraments is to Christ's Body through Holy Baptism. In 1 I put an emphasis on the exclusion considering that there are many women who gave birth without holy matrimony, while the men who did not want to be responsible for the pregnancy could waltz into the Holy Communion without any guilt.
GKJ, the exclusion of children is explicitly emphasized in PPA-GKJ, which is in question number 137 of PPA-GKJ: "Who is allowed to participate in Communion Sacrament?" Answer: "Every baptized adult, or who claim to believe and not in special guidance" (Sinode, 2005, p. 137 (Enklaar & Siahaan, 1978, p. 142)." The above description generate a statement: "What is wrong with underage congregations that they were excluded from Communion Sacrament, but they are allowed to participate in Baptism?" Is there hierarchy in virtue or sanctity between Baptism and Communion that they need to set high requirement for the participation of this sacrament? This paper is conducted to answer these two questions.

Definitions on Sacrament
Sacrament is an important ritual, as it is considered as the pinnacle point or fire point of church life and witness (Feineren & Vischer, 1975, p. 301 (Enklaar & Siahaan, 1978, pp. 12-13). Related to this idea, Moltmann emphasized that the Holy Communion is not a place to employ the Church's discipline.

Analyzing Church Tradition on Children in Holy Communion
According to Robert Schreiter,  tradition is used to legitimize such agenda (Schreiter, 1991, pp. 53-54  Church is a community of mutual affection, mutual sharing, and bear the burden (Sider, 2005, p. 154 (Schreiter, 1991, pp. 47-48). Culture romanticism will always be a danger, which could be in the form of

The exclusion of children from Holy
Communion Sacrament popular in GKJ shows that GKJ prefers to uphold Javanese culture rather than the agenda within the Gospel of the God's Kingdom.
Slametan or wilujengan is a main and important ritual of all rituals and ceremonies in Javanese religious system, as stated by Cliffort Geertz (Geertz, 1960). The most dominating characteristic of slametan was family party (Koentjaraningrat, 1984, p. 344). There is clearly a similarity with Jewish Passover. The party is started by a short opening speech by the host to describe the purpose of such party, gratitude for the attendees and apology for any errors and mistake happening in the event and the foods. After that, the prayer is led by a religious person or one of the relatives. It is then followed by dining after the prayer. The guests leave the host's house after dhikr, or collective prayer by reciting la'illaha illallah repeatedly for more than forty five minutes to an hour. They will also return home while carrying foods prepared by the host. Male adults become the main actor in this party, despite the fact that the women play more important role in preparing it for example deciding the date, the guests, food catering, and whether they need to hold the party. In other words, slametan employed adulthood politics. Children are excluded from this party despite it is a family party.
How so?
In Javanese families with traditional orientation, since the father holds higher position compared to the children, they do not want to have children in such party. If the father receives a guest, he will forbid his children going to where the guest is sitting.

Excluding children in Holy Communion
Sacrament is a ecclesiological product,  (Niebuhr, 1985