The Body of Christ, Sold for You

[chrishansenhome]

A very interesting article came to my attention this evening. It describes the industry of making Communion wafers in the United States. You might think that it has been saintly nuns toiling over waffle irons making your hosts, but these days, you'd mostly be wrong.

Comments

[merlinwon.livejournal.com]

I recall.. when i first started in the folk group at church.. we'd assemble in the back room.. where the PRIESTS got ready n stuff. we'd go into the cupboards.. and snag up a bunch of wafers and eat 'em! We were so HOLY back then! ;)

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

You ate the wafers? That's penny ante: we used to drink the communion wine. ;-)

[vasilatos]

i went to church camp for years of summers, and while there were loads of traditions at the place, one was making "communion bread" out of the squishy white sandwich bread we got served in major quantity at our tables in the dining room. you squished it flat with your glass, and cut it into a circle, see, and viola!

[vasilatos]

in low services, we passed around an actual loaf and pulled pieces off

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

My ex and I went to Holy Communion at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh (Church of Scotland). They cut the crusts off an entire loaf of bread and passed that around as communion.

At Trinity in San Francisco Robert Cromey used to occasionally use an entire sourdough loaf. He would administer it (not pass it around) but whatever remained was brought down to coffee hour so that we could finish it off. Slightly unorthodox but easier than having the servers and assisting priests eat it during the post-Communion.

[tim1965.livejournal.com]

My Lutheran pastor friend Michael says they abandoned communion wafers in favor of locally baked loaves of bread. (Some are gluten-free!) The altar boys break up the leftover bread and feed it to the birds. "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them."

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

The altar boys break up the leftover bread and feed it to the birds. "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them."

Doing that would be against the canons of the RC Church and (I believe) the Episcopal Church. The latter has rubrics which state that the remainder of the Sacrament must be consumed reverently either after Communion or after the Eucharist.

Those who believe in the Real Presence believe that the elements are the real Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, and that this does not end at the end of the communion service. Some Lutherans would hold this belief and consume everything after the service. Other Lutherans and those in other denominations such as Presbyterianism or the Baptists might hold a different view and have no problem with tossing the elements to the birds.

Mt 16:26 "He answered and said, 'It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.'"

[tim1965.livejournal.com]

Mt 16:26 "He answered and said, 'It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.'"

That's why they serve cookies at the end of the service. :)

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

At St. Matthew's At The Elephant (my parish church), we often have croissants, not cookies.

At St. James, Garlickhythe (http://www.stjamesgarlickhythe.org/), in the City of London, they serve wine afterwards, but no cookies (or biscuits, as we would say).

[tim1965.livejournal.com]

Pretty akin to the kosher food industry.

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

Hm. I didn't know there were parallels. Most of the stuff I remember (like Manischewitz) was by a family-owned company. I still recall the goofy ads on radio for Man-oh-Manischewitz kosher wine. I always thought it tasted vile.

[tim1965.livejournal.com]

Hebrew National has been caught doing some really appalling things. They've never broken kosher, but they've been caught union-busting, using slave labor, poisoning the environment, illegally dumping toxic waste, and a bunch of other things. (They're owne by mega-corp ConAgra, which should tell you something.) Rokeach and Breakstone have had similar problems.

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

What a shame. I always felt that Hebrew National made the best hot dogs in the United States. And Breakstone was the spreadable butter I always used when I lived in New York.

**sigh**

[ajaxstamos.livejournal.com]

Well, now I'm tempted to buy a bag.

[chrishansenhome.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't bother. They're tasteless. If you want pure cracker-like stuff, buy matzos.