gluten free Communion

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 12:49 pm

Happy New Year everyone! I'm just came from church and my North Florida church now has gluten free Communion at three of the 5 stations. The pastor made two announcements about it. Plus the boyfriend also took the gluten free option to support me. Brandy

jmayk8 · Post by **jmayk8** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 1:58 pm

wow! that's awesome, such a huge step in the gluten free movement! :)

Martha · Post by **Martha** » Sun Jan 01, 2012 5:17 pm

That is so great, Brandy.

Love,
Martha

draperygoddess · Post by **draperygoddess** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 8:56 pm

Funny you should post this--we had two church services that included communion over the holidays, and I couldn't participate in either one. I am reading Sandra Beasley's book Don't Kill the Birthday Girl, and in it she mentions this issue and how different churches have approached it. It's great that more people are becoming aware of this and making allowances for GF members!

Martha · Post by **Martha** » Mon Jan 02, 2012 9:06 pm

I talked to my pastor last year, and he told me it was fine to bring my own bread. We use individual cups, so the wine/grape juice being contaminated with bread dipped into it isn't an issue.

I wouldn't do that in any church where I hadn't cleared it with the pastor, though.

Last week I was at a wedding at an Anglican church. They served communion to the whole congregation, which took me by surprise. The priest explained how to just fold your arms if you didn't want to take either the bread or the wine, for whatever reason. An usher came to each row to indicate when it was time to go forward. My DIL and I were quietly deciding who should take the toddler and who should take the baby, and when we looked up, the usher had totally skipped our row and the row behind us! Even my husband, who was sitting on the aisle, has no idea why they skipped us.