<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Thanks to all who responded to my gluten-free communion wafers email.
There were multiple solutions proposed which I have summarized, rather
than including each mail message.

      1) Bring your own wafers (you can get them pre-blessed and just
      bring them up to the rail with you).  Options for the wafers
      include:

         a) Make your own (apparently GIG has a recipe and another
         woman who responded to me said she would email me her
         recipe)

         Gluten Intolerance Group
         15110 10th Ave SW, Suite A
         Seattle, WA 98166-1820
         Telephone:  206-246-6652
         Fax:        206-246-6531
         Website:    www.gluten.net
         Email:      [log in to unmask]    or    [log in to unmask]

         b) Bring your favorite brand of rice crackers

         c) Ener-G foods is thinking about producing gf communion
            wafers (let's all contact them!)

         d) Some place in England sells wafers with wheat starch.
            This isn't an option for me but if someone wants it, I can
            put them in contact with the person who told me about this.

         e) Make your own bread and bring it in for everyone (Education!)

      2) Skip the wafers and only partake of the wine.

      3) Skip everything and just get blessed.

      4) Take communion by placing it in your hand and bring it back
         to the pew with you and then feed it to your spouse.  This was
         the funniest suggestion and it could work for many people.

I personally don't partake of the wine already (red wine doesn't agree
with me) but in churches where they use grape juice, this may not be a
problem.  I serve the wine about once a month and I can tell you that
many little bits of communion wafer float around in our big cup.  I
would not want to risk the gluten contained therein.

Skipping everything and just being blessed tends to drive me nuts.
It's what I do when I visit other churches and the priest usually
treats me as though I am not even baptized.  This irritates me to no
end.

Option 4 is a great idea but I don't have the time for it.  Education
is great but my gluten-free bread isn't very good yet and I don't have
the time to fix it and make it for everyone (300+ people!) every week.

It looks as though option 1 is the best, at least for me.  Others have
had trouble bringing wafers into the communal bin and having them
taken and it looks as though the small communion holder used to bring
communion to the shut-ins (called a 'pyx' by most people) would be the
perfect size.  One woman brings her in a medicine bottle.

Several people told me to search the archives for a company that makes
gluten-free wafers.  I did but discovered that it was the same company
that I had already called.  They no longer make the wafers due to
following the restricted Catholic guidelines.

A web site with some useful info:
www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/communion.html#source

As an aside, I had no idea that the list had been around since the
early 90s.  I wish I had known about it then!  What a wonderful
resource and a big thanks to the organizers.

-Amy in MA