More Churches Offering Gluten-free Communion Bread Options

Additionally, in the Catholic church, the priest breaks bread over the wine chalice and people are allowed to dip the host in the wine during communion. So even though the church says parishioners can receive full communion with wine only, that too is sadly cross contaminated. Celiacs are the new lepers of the Catholic community; we are unworthy to receive the sacrament.

I live in Mid-Hudson Valley (Archdiocese of NY) and spoke to priest at Catholic church I attend. Priests there now have a separate chalice from which I take communion in the form of wine. This works out very well.

My church now offers gluten-free communion. My son partook of communion last Sunday for the first time in two years! Since I'm the one who did the research, etc., the pastor and communion servers are very aware of the restrictions to not touch the gluten-free wafers. Thank you, Keith Sexton, pastor extraordinaire!

Additionally, in the Catholic church, the priest breaks bread over the wine chalice and people are allowed to dip the host in the wine during communion. So even though the church says parishioners can receive full communion with wine only, that too is sadly cross contaminated. Celiacs are the new lepers of the Catholic community; we are unworthy to receive the sacrament.

Our Catholic church has offered a gluten-free host for several years now, with the priest being the only server to have the gluten-free host. They are kept in a separate pic (sp) which sits inside his chalice with the rest of the hosts. Only problem we run into is when there is a visiting priest and he doesn't know to put the pic in with his hosts.

I didn't take communion for five years. Our new minister found out that I wasn't taking communion because of the gluten. I didn't want to make a fuss or require special arrangements, but he said "Even if it was only you that needs it, you're worth it, but also where there is one... there are more." He ordered special wafers for me, and separates the wine in a small cup just for gluten-free - keeps everything on a small table beside him and if you need gluten-free you mention it to him when you come up to take communion... we went through 50 wafers in three months! I thought I was the only one, but obviously not.

I know churches need to have gluten-free wafers for people. One in every three people is a large number of people. People will leave the church if they can't get the wafers in gluten-free.

"Do you want to grow, or do you want to fold?" is the question for the churches. Word will spread by word of mouth as to who does and does not accommodate them.

I don't take communion. I have allergies to at least 5 of the gluten-free flours too. My pastor knows why I don't do communion. If people ask me, I tell them. The hand cleaner they use to break the bread off too makes me sick too.

It is great some churches are recognizing celiac disease. The number will grow, I believe.

Our church has offered gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, preservative-free bread for about a year now. Very labor intensive, cutting up all these loaves into bite size cubes. The wafers you can order online are WAY too expensive. It would cost our church $150 every Sunday if we bought those wafers. Now we spend about $7 a Sunday for a loaf and 1/2 of bread cubes.

Jesus was a very poor Jew. He relied on the charity of others. We really do not know what kind of peasant bread he ate at that time. If it is turned into body and blood, it no longer is bread. What difference does it make what it was before?

Exactly! Who cares about the gluten content of the bread (or the alcohol content of the wine for alcoholics)? According to the judgement of the Council of Trent, "The Thirteenth Session, ON THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT OF THE EUCHARIST," the bread and the wine aren't actually bread and wine when consumed, but are ". . . truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ . . ." So a real, believing Catholic, and of course the Catholic Church itself, should have no truck with gluten-free wafers, celiac disease or not, because how much gluten is in the body of Jesus anyway? If transubstantiation is real (and a true Catholic cannot believe otherwise) then the gluten in the wafer shouldn't even cause a problem for those with celiac disease. The fact that it does cause problems brings us to an obvious conclusion that I'll leave unsaid...

I have not received communion for 3 years because of my celiac diagnosis. Recently I found out that some churches (catholic) in the area do indeed serve the gluten free host. It requires some extra effort from the people that prepare the communion ahead of time and the people that serve it. I'm uncomfortable with the whole process, but I have no other recourse. I cannot believe that Jesus Christ would tell me that I am unworthy to receive the host because I happen to have celiac disease. In His time celiac disease probably didn't even exist. Nor did the word 'gluten' for that matter. Why can't the catholic church wake up and join the 21st century?

I am part of Altar Guild. This is the first I heard someone in our church who need Gluten free communion. I am willing to give this option. I need to know how are some church served it without being cross contaminated. I am ordering wafers but need to bag it. Do we have another paten (plate to put gluten free wafer on??? How did you word it in your bulletin that we offered Gluten free??? Do we have to have Gluten free wafer or can we use gluten free cracker type???