Conservative Anglicans HELP!!!

[wannabeadesigirl]

I've got a question about Communion.
My boyfriend is a Hindu/Agnostic. I've been taught from a very young age, that communion is the dinner of the saints, that those who are not baptized Christians should not partake of Communion because they're not under the Covenant blessings.

I don't understand this whole thing. In my boyfriends point of view, Jesus allowed everyone to come to him, regardless of their background. He doesn't understand why he can't take communion, and I don't know how to explain it to him, because his point of view makes sense.

Why do we have that philosophy on Communion? I know it's a spiritual dinner we have with Christ, but he also let sinners and tax collectors eat with him.

I guess my questions are:
1. Why do we exclude?
2. How do I explain it to my boyfriend?
3. What are the Biblical foundations for exclusion, and inclusion?

 

[Secundulus]

I've got a question about Communion.
My boyfriend is a Hindu/Agnostic. I've been taught from a very young age, that communion is the dinner of the saints, that those who are not baptized Christians should not partake of Communion because they're not under the Covenant blessings.

I don't understand this whole thing. In my boyfriends point of view, Jesus allowed everyone to come to him, regardless of their background. He doesn't understand why he can't take communion, and I don't know how to explain it to him, because his point of view makes sense.

Why do we have that philosophy on Communion? I know it's a spiritual dinner we have with Christ, but he also let sinners and tax collectors eat with him.

I guess my questions are:
1. Why do we exclude?
2. How do I explain it to my boyfriend?
3. What are the Biblical foundations for exclusion, and inclusion?

The short answer is that in eating the body and blood of Christ we become one with him and one with the entire body of Christ.

A non-baptised person is not a member of the Church and it would be first meaningless for him and second a sacrilege to the Eucharist.

The long answer is here http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/p2s2c1a3.htm complete with scriptural references in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I use this reference because the Bishops of my branch of Anglicanism have endorsed it without reservation.