Gluten-free Communion

Last week I felt like I pulled off a coup! One of my responsibilities at my new church is to assign communion servers. This task does not have much to do with being an associate pastor, but came about because I believe celebrating the Lord's Supper is one of the most important things we do as church and so I was more than willing to to take it on.

I talked with one of the usual servers, who is gluten-intolerant and she asked about having a separate gluten-free station. She appreciates that now there is a gluten-free wafer, where there didn't used to be (and she used to stay in her seat and not participate in the Eucharistic feast), but her allergy can be aggravated by simple cross-contamination from a hand handling glutinous bread to handling the gluten-free wafer.

I then talked with another United Methodist Church which has had a separate gluten-free communion station for years and discovered that they not only have gluten-intolerant folks who use it but also immuno-compromised folks (on chemo, etc.). The gluten-free wafers are not touched by anyone else: they are shaken from their box onto a cloth and then the person coming up picks up his/her own wafer. The point is to be all inclusive, welcoming, and hospitable. Even when you don't think there will be someone present at a service who will want the gluten-free, you provide it, anyway.

I presented all this information to my fellow staff members and they agreed, we should have a separate gluten-free station at all services. When I emailed the original lady I'd started this whole conversation with, her response back was: "Oh, wow! This is awesome! Thank you so much, Pastor Heather!" I felt like I'd pulled off a coup. This change means that much to her and to others who felt hindered from coming to the communion table.

This past Sunday we had a separate gluten-free station at each service. It felt a little anti-climatic after all the work building up to it. The set-up needs tweaking a little bit, but it was a start and folks appreciated it.

There are so many reasons folks don't participate in communion (I blogged about it before on June 15). I am glad there is now one less reason at Orange! It's the LORD's table and we are all invited guests! Therefore, let us not hinder one another from feasting, too.