[Sca-cooks] Okay, so this is vaguely food-related...

[AEllin Olafs dotter]

I'd never thought about the gluten specifically, but it makes sense. It 
is supposed to be an unleavened bread. You wouldn't leaven a gluten free 
bread to begin with...

Same for Matzo. I don't notice anyone suggesting that a gluten free 
matzo be made under rabbinical supervision for Passover use... which 
would be essentially the same thing. And I don't think that's going to 
happen, either... for the same reason.

And, under the strictest and most traditional rules, you are still only 
"required" to receive once a year. That was called the Easter Duty, and 
was once, between Easter and Pentecost. You may of course, more 
frequently, and it has been very actively encouraged for quite some 
times, but doing so has never been a requirement. And that requirement 
was set long before anyone understood celiac disease...

Now, it is certainly possible that either your friend's mother or her 
priest is unwilling to be flexible about receiving only the wine. You do 
get individuals in any organization (even the SCA *gasp*) who insist 
upon following rules that aren't really there... but if that is true, 
that's another entire issue, and well beyond the scope of this list. *G*

BTW, I was a Eucharistic Minister in a former community, though I have 
not been actively so for some years. I did get training on this subject...

AEllin

Tara Sersen Boroson wrote:


> 
> Interesting, I'd never heard of that - that's good to know.  Looking a 
> little closer at www.celiac.com, I found a bit of information regarding 
> that (previous webpages I saw and people I've spoken to only mentioned 
> not being able to take the communion wafer and getting flak for it, 
> nobody ever told me you were *allowed* to forgo the wafer.)  A letter 
> from the Vatican states that *low-gluten* wafers may be used, but not 
> gluten-free because that would change the basic nature of the bread.  It 
> specifies that sufferers of celiac or alcoholism may not be admitted to 
> Holy Orders because Eucharist is so central to the job, although it 
> seems to state that currently ordained priests may apply for exceptions 
> but may not be able to perform in all functions of their position if 
> they do.  So, I'm glad to see that it's not as rigid as my friend's Mom 
> made it sound ;) but they're still not fully accomodating celiac disease.
> 
> http://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p_prodid=369
> http://www.celiac.com/st_prod.html?p_prodid=696
> 
> -Magdalena
>