The message from Jennifer Phillips ("Welcoming Children into the Liturgy") [TLC, Oct. 19] needs to be shouted from the mountain tops, although one would be hard pressed to find those here in the Red River Valley.

Having grown up in the Anglican Church in Canada, and having had the honor of being welcomed to the Great Thanksgiving portion of the worship service, I can say that I have lived that which she advocates. Admission to communion was a post-confirmation privilege in those days but we were invited to the rail for the blessing of the church, and thereby the "shape of the liturgy" was experienced. I could even spell "propitiation" when I was about 8 years of age, although it was only about 25 years later that I had any inkling about its meaning.

A proverbial saying posted on the wall of my office reads: "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand." In a tradition wherein liturgy is so important, it needs to be "done" from the earliest age. Baptism is the rite of initiation into the community of the faithful and as such it entitles the initiate to the full rights and privileges of membership, namely the sacrament which we call "Holy Communion."

Doubtless, the full inclusion of the youngest members of our congregations into our liturgy will require some adjustment to what has become a dignified, adult activity, but we will be enriched by the efforts. Who better to teach us about mystery, awe and wonder than those who are the experts in these areas? It is, I am sure, this aspect of our personality about which Jesus speaks when he says, "Those who do not enter the kingdom of God as a child, will never enter." We are not called to go back physically to being children (see Nicodemus to Jesus, John 3), but we are called to approach the throne of grace with pure and childlike hearts.

(The Rev.) Harvey Henderson

Trinity Church

Wahpeton, N.D.