Wednesday, 31 December 2008
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Communion at Your Church- Wafers or Bread?
Guest post submitted by a Revelife reader
According to the NY Times article, "Bread of Life, Baked in Rhode Island," there's a good chance if you attend a Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran or Southern Baptist church the wafers used during Communion are from a small, family owned company out of Greenville, Rhode Island.
The Cavanagh Company makes about 80 percent of the communion bread used by the Catholic, Episcopal, Lutheran and Southern Baptist churches in the United States. It has a similar market share in Australia,Canada and Britain, and is now looking to expand to West Africa.
According to the article, "some customers say the Cavanaghs have such a big market share because their product is about as close to perfect as earthly possible. “It doesn’t crumb, and I don’t like fragments of our Lord scattering all over the floor,” said the Rev. Bob Dietel, an Episcopal priest."
I've never thought about where the bread we eat during Communion originates from only what it represents, but it's neat to read the backstory on how the wafers are made and where they come from.
I've mainly attended two different churches in my life and one distributed wafers and the other one we broke the bread from an actual loaf of challah.
What about your church? Is Communion done with wafers or bread?
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Comments (50)
My church uses wafers. I can't take communion because I'm not baptized yet, but we use wafers. I can't wait until I can finally take communion. April 3, 2010!
No wafers, we have bits of crackers or an actual little packet with a cracker and juice pre-packaged.
My church just uses the wafers. I go to school in my church also so I know where everything (even the children's church candy!) is located... even those giant tubs of wafers. I actually like the way they taste with the Welch's... pretty darn tasty in that "there is no flavor whatsoever" sort of way.
Broken up matzoh and little clear plastic cups of grape juice. One Sunday the matzoh was garlic flavored. The reactions on people's faces were great!
Extremely interesting article at the link. I used to work in one of those Christian bookstores, and the communion supplies were very reliable sellers (though it does seem a bit crass to consider them from a commercial POV!).
My church uses... some kind of crackers I think. It just occurred to me that I'm not really sure, although I participate in Communion as regularly as anyone. I suppose I'm focusing more on the meaning of the ceremony than on the elements themselves, which is probably a good thing.
@walkintotheseaaa@xanga, I'm curious what kind of church you go to. 16 months seems like a long wait to be baptized to me. What has to happen between now and then?
@Pass_the_Aura@xanga - I go to a Catholic Church, and to convert, you start RCIA (the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) in late August and it goes through May. You don't make a true commitment to convert until the Easter Vigil service, when you're baptized (if not previously in another denomination), confirmed, and then receive first communion. I decided to do RCIA too late (I had too many conflicts, anyway), so I can't start until next fall. It's worth the wait, though. I'll know for sure it's for me if I take sixteen months to learn, pray, and explore.
This was part of the subject in the Sunday school class I attended this past weekend. We were studying I Corinthians 10:14-33 and 11:17-33. There was a point brought up about how many people take communion without thinking the way that God intended.
The best verse to understand this is I Corinthians 11:27-32: "Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgement on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgement. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world."
Except for a year or two, whatever you call the small squares...
I think the Southern Baptist church I attended in the 90s used pieces of unleavened bread for a few years.
The other question...at your church, what is used as the 'fruit of the vine?'
At the three churches I've regularly attended my adult life, it's always been grape juice.
I don't know whether a particular church I visited earlier this year while traveling used wine or grape juice.
The most intimate communion I have shared is always a big loaf of bread that everyone takes a chunk out of. The little bite-size crackers or wafers are just so...impersonal. I don't know how to explain it exactly, but I believe it is meant to be shared more personally with other believers, not just oneself.
we have the body and blood of christ.
Necco wafers!
My mum is responsible for baking the cracker. She does it once a month, using water, oil and flour. She used to go to a Baptist church and learnt the skill from one of the old sisters there.
It's strange to say so but it's probably the most tasty communion you can have. Very crunchy ... but yeah, I've never thought of the problem of having bits and pieces of Jesus all over the place ...
@walkintotheseaaa@xanga - That's very interesting! Best wishes on your spiritual journey.
To me it doesnt matter. Its remembering his life, death, burial and ressurection that is the most important
I can't help but be reminded of the old (bad) joke about the youth group that got in trouble for having a communion service with Doritos and Coke.
We use regular bread - but like wheelchere@xanga , to me it doesn't matter either. The bread and the wine (or juice) are symbols of remembering His death and resurrection - what He gave up for us "this you shall do in remembrance of me".
Neither... bits of matzo and grape juice. Yum! Hehe :)
Both. I go to a Catholic church where the priest starts with bread, but keeps wafers on hand as a backup in case there isn't enough. He also gives wafers to the music ministers. We receive before starting the communion song and it's really hard to swallow the thicker stuff right before singing.
My church uses wafers, but occassionally we've had bread and I never figured out the pattern! The bread tastes better....:P but we've only had it a couple of times when I was there.
The wine (which may or may not be actual wine, I'm not sure. I never drink it!) is one communal cup, and most people skip it...because nobody wants to drink out of the same cup as everybody else....
Communion is demonic and canabalism.
At my church we use unleavened bread (and grape juice). Usually it's already broken up into pieces for us, although we have done the 'each person takes a small part of the whole loaf' thing before. Our church has the position of communion steward, who is responsible for making the bread. :)
We use Matzos - which is a large cracker (unleavened bread) baked in a specific way. The markings on the matzos have stripes and little holes to show the that He was wounded for our transgressions etc. And we use non-alcolholic juice.
@walkintotheseaaa@xanga - Well, one needs time to learn about 2,000 years of tradition.
I am so happy for you!!!!!!!!
We use bread, but personally I think wafer is the preferable way to go. The passover bread was unleavened.
One church I used to attend used a sweet shortbread type of cake.
@tendollar4ways@xanga - Do you mean cannibalistic? Protestants don't actually believe that the bread magically turns into Christ's body and the wine into his blood. Rather, we take communion to remember his death and resurrection. Why do you think it's demonic?