I’ve got church and communion on the brain. Tonight my family will join me as I sing at church for Christmas Eve. I love this time of year.
Emma (left) with cousins after her First Communion
Emma had her first communion last April, it is her first Christmas holiday going to communion. Ida, our exchange student, will also be joining us as well so now we’ll have two people tonight that I will need to help get communion ready for.
Gluten-Free Wafers
We attend a Lutheran church in Minnesota so they order EnerG Communion Wafers. I thought I would explain how it works for us, and hopefully it will help others who may be wondering how to get it done – likely not in time for Christmas; but maybe before winter’s over.
I was lucky, someone at my church had already paved the way for my kids getting gluten-free communion. So they already had the wafers in a refrigerator in a room behind the altar. The only thing I educated the staff was on was cross-contamination. The first gluten-free person was putting her plain wafer tucked under a small towel, which was under the big stacks of communion bread – crumbs everywhere.
I added the extra layer of a zipper baggie for the gluten-free wafers, then I set them next to the other communion bread. The communion ministry workers also pour a gluten-free only chalice of wine for Emma and Ida to dip their wafers in. We go to the lead pastor (no matter where he’s stationed) to receive communion as he will have the wafers with him. Emma and Ida take the wafers out of the bag and dip them into the “clean” wine. It works out pretty well. Each pastor, priest or reverend will have their own way of going about this so when you approach them about it, you may want to ask what their recommendations are to make this happen.
Catholicism’s Take on Gluten-Free Wafers
For Catholics, there is an added challenge of Canon Law, which requires some amount of wheat in the communion host. However, you can ask for non-contaminated wine only and that should suffice for communion.
There are other options out there. Sometimes it just takes some creativity to come up with a good solution for you, your family and your church. Other resources on this issue include the Benedictine Sisters who have a low-gluten wafer that is worth investigating. And you can easily find EnerG wafers online. Good luck with your endeavor into gluten-free communion.
Tags: catholic, church, communion, gluten-free, host, lutheran, wafer
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