Daily Telegraph, 10 February 2025

Some things never fail to amaze and amuse me. A small article teaser at the bottom of today’s Daily Telegraph mentions that the Church of England’s Synod has ruled that the bread and wine offerings presented during their Holy Communion services cannot be either gluten-free or non-alcoholic. The wafers must be made from ‘the best and purest wheat flour’ and the wine must be ‘the fermented juice of the grape.’ More detail here.

That got me thinking. How many people in the UK subscribe to a gluten-free diet, either for perceived health benefits or because they have coeliac disease, a condition where the gluten protein causes the body’s immune system to attack the tissues of the small intestine (small bowel)? Microsoft’s Copilot suggested that at least 1% of the UK’s population suffer from coeliac disease, but the gluten-free diet percentage is likely higher, up to 6%, given people living with undiagnosed coeliac disease and health-benefit adherents. Demographic breakdown and more details can be found here.

Hmm. Okay. What about the alcohol-free drinkers? People avoid alcoholic beverages for religious reasons (e.g., Muslims, some Hindus – none of whom would wish to take Holy Communion!), health-benefit reasons (risk of organ damage), or to escape an addiction. Again, I turned to Copilot, which provided the following answer:

According to the 2022 Health Survey for England, around 19% of adults reported that they do not drink alcohol. This figure includes both those who abstain for religious reasons and those who choose not to drink for personal, health, or other non-religious reasons.

We would need to look more closely at the demographics to determine what percentage of the 19% overall figure is made up of the non-Christian religious contingent. The 2021 England and Wales Census identified 83.4% of the UK to be either Christian (46.2%) or None (37.2%) whereas Muslims and Hindus came in at 8.2% total (6.5% Muslim, 1.7% Hindu). Thus, we can reduce the 19% no-alcohol figure by at least 8.2%. In other words, roughly one-tenth of the adult population is excluded from Holy Communion.

I wonder if these exclusions were considered during the Synod’s discussion of the acceptance or otherwise of gluten-free and non-alcoholic Eucharistic offerings. I also wonder if protest marches have been held by those wishing to partake fully in the Eucharist but who feel discriminated against.

The conversion of consecrated bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus Christ during Holy Communion, a process called transubstantiation, is central to Christian theology. Excluding those who neither partake of gluten bread nor fermented wine seems petty, but I can see the real reason. It’s because the congregation would have to be apportioned into four separate groups: gluten-free, alcohol-free, gluten-free and alcohol-free, and the rest, and the priest announcing the order of the groups with group members responding accordingly. Either that or members of the congregation would have to wear stickers specifying their preferences, in which case the officiating priest would have to have bowls containing both types of wafers and carafes containing both types of wine, and make sure not to mix them up.

There’s also the question of the effect of gluten-free wafers and non-alcoholic wine on the transubstantiation process. Would such impure hosts still convert into the body and blood of Christ, or not? If not, and leaving aside the question of what they might convert into, this would be another good reason to adhere to the best and purest wheat flour and fermented juice of the grape.

It’s a good job the liquid Eucharistic element does not include tea (with caffeine or caffeine-free), coffee (the same as tea), milk (full-fat, semi-fat, or skimmed), or sodas (with sugar or sugar-free). Even water might cause a problem – plain or fizzy?

(^_^)