The Church of England has ruled that non-alcoholic wine and gluten-free bread cannot be used in Holy Communion services after priests demanded an end to the ‘injustice’.
Church laws state that bread must be made using wheat flour and wine must be the fermented juice of a grape in order to be consecrated by a priest.
But ahead of a meeting of the Church’s ruling body, the General Synod, today, a priest asked for the rules to be changed to end the ‘injustice’ for people who can’t drink alcohol or eat gluten.
Synod member Revd Canon Alice Kemp asked if canon laws can be amended ‘to enable the legal use of gluten free and alcohol free elements at the Eucharist to remove the injustice of this exclusion’.
Revd Kemp added that priests and congregants ‘may be prohibited from receiving both elements [bread and wine] if they are unable to consume both gluten and alcohol’.
However Michael Ipgrave, the Bishop of Lichfield and chairman of the Church’s Liturgical Commission, said doing so would overturn two settled positions of the CofE.
Gluten-free bread and non-alcoholic wine may not be used for Holy Communion services, the Church of England has ruled (stock image)
Synod member Revd Canon Alice Kemp (pictured) asked if canon laws can be amended ‘to enable the legal use of gluten and alcohol free elements in the Eucharist
‘First, that bread made with wheat and the fermented juice of the grape are the elements to be consecrated in holy communion; and second, that receiving holy communion in one kind in a case of necessity is not an “exclusion” but full participation in the sacrament, as often practised in the communion of the sick, or with children,’ Bishop Ipgrave said.
He added that even Christians who cannot physically receive the sacrament of Holy Communion are ‘to be assured that they are partakers by faith of the body and blood of Christ’.
Holy communion is one of the central sacraments of the Christian faith, with the bread and wine symbolising the body and blood of Christ.
Canon B 17 of the CofE states that communion wine should be ‘the fermented juice of the grape, good and wholesome’ and the bread ‘whether leavened or unleavened, shall be of the best and purest wheat flour’.
The Church has previously allowed certain types of communion wafer made using specially processed wheat that significantly reduces the amount of gluten, however other gluten-free alternatives made from non-wheat flour are not permitted.
Pictured are members of the Synod at Church House in central London. The Church’s Liturgical Commission has ruled that allowing the modified elements would overturn two settled positions of the CofE
The Church of England has previously allowed certain types of communion wafer made using specially processed wheat that significantly reduces the amount of gluten, but has not given the nod of approval to other gluten-free alternatives from non wheat flour (file photo)
The Catholic church does not allow gluten-free bread to be used during mass, with the Vatican stating in a 2017 letter to bishops that ‘hosts that are completely gluten-free are invalid matter for the celebration of the Eucharist’.
Under Vatican rules wine that is ‘of doubtful authenticity or provenance’ is forbidden, but it has approved the use of mustum, a non-alcoholic grape juice, for congregants and ‘priests suffering from alcoholism’.
