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Communion Bread

BlessedMommy

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BlessedMommy Rising Star
BlessedMommy
Posted

My approach to communion for the last few years has been simply to skip the bread and drink the grape juice. I'm considering finding an option for bread though. If you go to a church that practices communion, what do you do? Homemade, commercial, or go without?

 

Any recommendations on recipes or products?

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llama3 Apprentice
llama3
Posted

My approach to communion for the last few years has been simply to skip the bread and drink the grape juice. I'm considering finding an option for bread though. If you go to a church that practices communion, what do you do? Homemade, commercial, or go without?

 

Any recommendations on recipes or products?

 

The church I'm currently attending uses the Ener-G wafers.  They taste a little different from regular communion hosts and are crunchier but I haven't had a reaction to them.

notme Experienced
notme
Posted

i bring my own bread and have my pastor bless it as the host.  i go to a methodist church.  we kneel at the altar, and one of them brings around the bread and i just hold mine in my hand and show said person that i'm already good to go.  (it is just a little piece of udi's or rudi's or whatever i have around at the time)  i did speak with our minister ahead of time, and he said it was fine :)

Georgia-guy Enthusiast
Georgia-guy
Posted

There are gluten-free communion wafers available. Speak to your pastor and see if they can order them. The church I grew up in had several people who had celiac, and the church would order the gluten-free wafers, and the ministers knew to keep them separate from the rest, and those that had celiac always received communion first to avoid contamination on the hands and on the glasses.

across Contributor
across
Posted

We have gluten free wafers, but there are still cross contamination issues which we haven't quite figured out how to solve yet. The pastor distributes the wafers, and he already has gluten on his hands because of having broken the large wafer as part of the liturgy. There are other cross contamination issues besides that, and we're still trying to figure out how to work everything without making it a huge deal.

 

One thing I just thought of this morning is that I need to stop drinking from the common cup. (In our church, people can choose between common cup and the small individual cups). The wine in the common cup would almost certainly have gluten in it due to everyone consuming the wafer first, and then drinking from the cup.

BlessedMommy Rising Star
BlessedMommy
Posted
  • Author

I think that I would just bring my wafer to church and consider the prayer of blessing to include it. I'm pretty sure that I would have CC issues if I put it anywhere near the regular ones. 

West Coast Canuck Rookie
West Coast Canuck
Posted

My Catholic parish has a seperate cup for the handful of us who are celiac.

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sweetsailing Apprentice
sweetsailing
Posted

At our church, we have separate gluten-free wafers that are in a separate container from the rest of the bread.  We don't use wafers for most people, it's actual bread that is broken into pieces by the pastor.  When I or someone who needs gluten free comes up, the container is offered that has the gluten free wafers.  No one touches the wafers except those who are eating them (or those who put them in the container to begin with), but the point is that the pastor is not handing to me after breaking bread for everyone else. 

StephanieL Enthusiast
StephanieL
Posted

Across, If you are Catholic, the cup the priest blesses also has a bit of host put into it so there is defiantly gluten in it.  They often have side cups though that do not have host pieces in it.

 

If you arem"t Catholic, disregard ;) 

Gaye of PA Apprentice
Gaye of PA
Posted

I used to bring a bit of my own gluten-free cracker in my purse, or if I forgot, I would just take the wine and not the bread.  

 

But currently our church is making the move to using gluten-free bread for everyone--they just buy a couple of loaves, which can be cut into small pieces and it provides for many people.  They also went through the cupboards and thoroughly cleaned the communion plates, etc. so that everything is starting out fresh and clean.  And they're in the process of educating anyone who might volunteer to set up the communion, so that if they slice it at home, they will use a clean plate, hands, etc. in order to prevent cross contamination.

 

It all still makes me nervous, but they truly are making a serious attempt at keeping everything clean.

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