You may have read of the latest church scandal reported in the news to a church scandal loving public. It turns out that the Church of England has ruled against gluten-free bread and alcohol-free wine for use in the Eucharist, communion as we low church people call it.

My low church denomination has issued no edict on the matter, so we are free to offer gluten-free bread and a choice of alcoholic or non-alcoholic wine at our communion buffets.

It is not so much that the Church of England has some sort of animus towards the gluten-intolerant or those who for whatever reason abstain from alcohol.  It’s just that church law, the Canons of the Church of England, are pretty clear. Section B.17.2b reads concerning the elements for Holy Communion:

“The bread, whether leavened or unleavened, shall be of the best and purest wheat flour that conveniently may be gotten, and the wine the fermented juice of the grape, good and wholesome.”

The ban on gluten-free and alcohol-free elements comes right after section B.16: Of notorious offenders not to be admitted to Holy Communion. It does not say whether parishioners who sneak a gluten-free wafer or a flask of Welch’s Grape Juice into a worship service are to be considered notorious offenders.

I suppose the most notorious communion service I’ve attended was when I was in college. The 1970s – probably enough said, but also the West Coast in the waxing days of the Jesus People. Anyway, we were a bunch of college kids on a retreat in the mountains. We likely sang “Pass it On” (It only takes a spark to get a fire going) and maybe “I Wish We’d All Been Ready” (Life was filled with guns and wars and everyone got trampled on the floor). Some wise 22-year old would have given a talk (no sermons for us), and then communion.  But we were relevant and knew that bread and wine were the staples of First Century life – just as Coke and chips were the staples of our collegiate lives.

So, a Coke and chips communion it was. No one knew about the rules of Canons of the Church of England, and even if someone did, we were as anti-establishment as we were relevant.

Fifty-some years later, the story is still a little embarrassing, as relevance often is.

I’m all for gluten-free and alcohol-free communion elements, but I also understand the church’s insistence on bread from the best and purest wheat flour and wine from grapes, good and wholesome. The church may need to protect herself from the notorious (and silly) offenses of relevance.

We’ve probably gotten past Coke and potato chip communion, but we still like our relevance, whether it be smoke machines, light shows, and over-amplified music or Easter Sunday egg hunts, bouncy houses, and perhaps an appearance by the Bunny himself.

The church can be notoriously offensive.

Gluten or alcohol free, a means of grace done in remembrance of him.  Neither our love of relevance nor our rigid insistence on the way it’s always been should cloud our celebration of the Eucharist.