No change on the Eucharist: CEN 3.14.08 p 7

There should be no change to the definition of “bread and wine” in the rubrics of the Eucharist a task force created by the Anglican Consultative Council’s Inter-Anglican Liturgical Committee has recommended. However, the use of gluten-free bread or other food staples as local exceptions should not be discouraged the report entitled “Eucharistic Food and Drink” said.

Prepared by a committee led by the ACC’s liturgical officer, the Rev. Paul Gibson of Canada, the “Eucharistic Food and Drink” report surveyed the provinces of the Anglican Communion asking whether the “use of elements other than wheat bread and fermented grape wine in the celebration of the Holy Communion” was in use.

The rubrics of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer allow an ambiguity in the form the host may take stating it “shall suffice that the Bread be such as is usual to be eaten; but the best and purest Wheat Bread that conveniently may be gotten.”

Ten provinces reported that some substitution of wheat bread and fermented grape wine was in place, either in formal practice or unofficial custom.

In Western countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the US, the use of rice-cakes to accommodate the needs of those suffering from gluten allergies, and grape juice for children or alcoholics was unofficially allowed.

In Islamic dominated regions where law forbad the possession of wine, grape juice was used. Pakistan reported that a drink made from boiling raisins and sugar was substituted for wine. Abhorrence of alcohol was also a factor in substituting wine for grape juice in some aboriginal communities in Canada and Australia as well as in East Africa, the report found.

In sections of Africa and the Far East the scarcity of wheat bread or wine had brought about the use of local substitutes. The Philippines reported the use of rice cakes and rice wine, while Uganda noted that Coke, banana juice, passion fruit or pineapple juice was used in some parishes. The practice had arisen, it said during the “difficult years of Idi Amin” when bread and wine were all but unobtainable. However, it could not say how widespread the practice was at present.

The report recommended that the church “reaffirm that the normative principle and practice of the Anglican Communion has always been and continues to be the use of the elements of bread and wine at the Eucharist.”

However, they said it was not “necessary or helpful to define ‘bread’ or ‘wine’ in precise detail. It is enough that the elements should be realistically capable of being called ‘bread’ and ‘wine’ in the context of the celebration of the Eucharist in a particular culture at a particular time.”

The decision to permit substitutions, they noted, was “best dealt with by the Province concerned, giving serious consideration to the effect of such variation on other Provinces.”