There is often confusion among Christians, and Catholics in particular, about how to fully participate in communion while keeping themselves safely free of the gluten contained in communion wafers/hosts. Certainly, one option is to only take the consecrated wine from the chalice, if that is an option in your parish. The other option -- finding a safe communion wafer -- had always been more of a challenge. That's because the Catholic Church in particular is rooted in Scripture and Tradition and believes that Jesus used wheaten bread at the Last Supper. Therefore, they require that breads used for communion be made with wheat and contain gluten. Fortunately, thanks to the research of the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, a company was found that produces wheat starch, which is wheat that has had most of its gluten removed. Miraculously, after much trial-and-error, the Benedictine Sisters were able to make low-gluten bread out of this special wheat starch and water. These wafers meet both the strongest requirements of the Catholic Church as well as the requirements of the gluten-free community, as confirmed by data from the Center for Celiac Research. These wafers contain less than .001% or 10 parts per million of... Read more →
Gluten free communion
If you're following a gluten free diet out of medical necessity (Celiac Disease or gluten sensitivity), fully participating in communion at your church can be tricky. Communion wafers, or hosts, are made using wheat. Some churches even use regular bread instead. So what's a Celiac or gluten sensitive individual to do? Fortunately, you have several options. Some people choose to bring their own special chalice and only take the wine. Even for Catholics, this is considered acceptable practice, because they believe both the bread (body) and wine (blood) contain the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ. You can talk with your pastor or priest about using your own chalice and having the wine in your chalice consecrated alongside the wine in the main chalice. Another option that's become available in the past few years is purchasing gluten free hosts from the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration. This is a group of nuns who, after many years of research, have discovered a way to offer a "low gluten" host that is approved by both the Celiac community and the Catholic Church. Why not just use gluten free bread or a gluten free cracker, you may wonder? Well, the Catholic Church, in... Read more →
BLOG HOP, DAY 10: At GlutenFreeTravelSite, our goal is to make it easy for anyone following a gluten free diet to find safe places to dine -- both in their area and when they travel. Since partipating in Holy Communion is such an integral part of most Christians' lives, we wanted to help visitors to our site also find churches that offer gluten-free (or low gluten) wafers/hosts. We recently began encouraging users of our site to submit “reviews” of churches offering gluten-free communion. You can find these reviews mixed in among the other reviews on our site, which are organized by location. So, for example, if you're traveling to Chicago and want to find a church where you can safely participate in communion, search reviews for the Chicago area. We don't have many churches reviewed on our site yet, and we need help spreading the word. If you or someone you know attends a church that offers gluten-free communion wafers/hosts, please submit a review to our site. The procedure is the same as it is for submitting a review of a restaurant or other establishment. Simply go to Submit Review, choose the location where the church is located, and follow... Read more →