What do you do when communion is scheduled at church? The elders offered to get rice crackers, but I had to explain that I'm allergic to rice, too.
Today was communion again. I usually just skip the bread and drink the juice, but today they threw me a curve. Last month they used juice that was sweetened with Splenda-not my favorite, but I tolerated it. (Why does grape juice have to be sweetened anyway?) This month, right after I downed the tiny glassful, I could taste the corn syrup. I immediately got welts on the roof of my mouth, my lips itched, and I coughed all afternoon.
After church I went down to the kitchen to see if I could find a label, but the juice was in a regular pitcher, so I couldn't tell. If there was a can in the trash, it was buried and I wasn't going to dig. I'll have to have a chat with the elders. I'm thinking of making a cracker of some kind that I could use for the bread-any ideas?
The worst time I had was Good Friday service. They decided it would be more meaningful to file to the front of the church, tear off a piece of bread and dip it in the juice. Of course I couldn't take ANY of that, especially after all that wheat was dipped into the juice. People kept trying to urge me to the front and couldn't understand why I was skipping communion. I think they thought I had some terrible sin to atone for or something.
I let myself have a bit of a pity party today. Communion is such a meaningful time and I can't completely participate-C'mon, Lord, it's for You-help me out here!
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I'm not much help here! We're Catholic and the Catholic church won't use any host in a communion ceremony that doesn't have wheat in it. Since my son is anaphylactic to wheat I guess he definitely won't be taking the bread. But our other problem is the wine. Everyone drinks out of the same cup. Kind of nasty when you think about but not safe from a food allergy point of view due to cross contamination. So the wine would be out too. My son is so excited to make his communion (in 2 years so I still have time to come up with a plan and I'm praying that he outgrows the wheat allergy) but I'm at a loss as to what to do. Communion is such a special part of the mass, I hope you can find a solution! I'm not sure what all of your allergies are. Did you google "allergy safe communion wafer"?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that your grandson's school is excellent with his allergies. That must be a relief!