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While on Sabbatical, Deacon Stacey, the boys and I had the opportunity to worship at other congregations, both near and far. This ended up being very helpful, and I am looking forward to sharing more about these experiences with the Worship and Music Committee when we meet next week. But I wanted to share one particular experience with everyone.
As many of you know, our middle son was diagnosed with Celiac Disease when he was about four years old. Celiac is a food allergy to gluten (Deacon Stacey has a gluten intolerance as well). Over the years, finding gluten-free items has become exponentially easier both in the grocery store and out in restaurants. For this we are tremendously thankful!
While visiting various churches, one of the first things we would look for was 1) whether communion was being celebrated and 2) whether a gluten-free option was available. In all the congregations we visited, I am pleased to report that they had gluten-free communion available. But in most cases when a gluten-free option was present, it was cross-contaminated — meaning that it was mingled with regular bread or wafers which often have flour on the outside. These questions made receiving communion a little less worshipful as we tried to figure out how and if Deacon Stacey and Kelton could participate.
So as I re-entered ministry at Grace last Sunday, I was reminded of the steps the Altar Guild and others have taken to ensure that communion is available to everyone, without the allergen questions and stress. My guess is that many may not know that we bake our own communion bread at Grace. Years ago we came across a recipe for gluten-free bread and over the years, Beth Reavis and others have tweaked that recipe to improve it for our context.
Several months back, we had a new member of the congregation ask if they could see the ingredients in the bread since they wondered if it was also nut-free (it is!). It was then that Sabena, our Office Manager, thought to bold and underline the allergen-friendly details in our bulletin each Sunday. While for most of us, we skip over the instructions, I can tell you from firsthand experience that those with allergies, especially those worshiping at Grace for the first time, read that paragraph very closely!
And to me, this is one of those little things that we do at Grace that speaks volumes about who we are and who is welcome (spoiler alert — EVERYONE!) at the table. As a parent of a child with a food allergy, this seemingly small act of Grace makes all the difference in the world. It is just one tiny detail about our ministry that lives out our mission to share God’s love so that ALL are served and supported!
In Grace,
Pastor Steve
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