Wafering over gluten-free host

Blenheim Anglicans are saying amen to gluten-free wafers during communion, but the idea has left a bad taste with one Christmas churchgoer.

Waihopai Valley man Patrick Rattray went to communion at the Nativity Church on Alfred St on Christmas morning and was surprised to be given the option of a gluten-free wafer and non-alcoholic grape juice.

He only went to church at Christmas and Easter and said the idea of having the options were too politically correct.

Mr Rattray wrote a letter to the editor asking if he should "go over to Rome, or am I already too late?"

"It's just a sadness that all these things are taken so seriously. We don't laugh at ourselves any more," he told the Express.

He opted for the more traditional wafer and wine.

Nativity Church's Rev Derek Harding, who is gluten intolerant, said the gluten-free wafers had been offered since at least 2004. Other Anglican churches in Marlborough also offered the choice and non-alcoholic grape juice as an alternative to wine.

The church in Spring Creek and the Nativity Church both had at least two people each communion who chose gluten-free, he said.

"It's very much appreciated. It stops people from being excluded or being surreptitious, which is a problem."

"If people don't want to make it obvious they're gluten-free, they tend to take a wafer and, because it's consecrated, it must be consumed, so they either have to palm it off or give it to someone else."

The same applied for people if they did not want to drink wine.

Rev Harding and Nativity Church priest John Neal both responded to Mr Rattray's letter.

"The offer of gluten-free is a much newer practice, but in a day and age in which people's allergies are recognised and accepted, there are those who take the gluten-free option for the sake of their physical health," Mr Neal's letter says.

"In biblical theology ... neither is regarded as injurious to spiritual health."

St Mary's Catholic Church on Maxwell Rd and the Elim Church on Burleigh Rd do not offer the option but Elim Church pastor Tom Hatch said it was a "jolly good idea".

The church holds communion almost every Sunday and uses bread cut into cubes instead of wafers, and also offers grape juice.

He knew of three gluten-intolerant members of his congregation.

- The Marlborough Express

SIMON WONG

Last updated 16:00 30/12/2011

Choices, choices: Members of the congregation at Anglican churches in Blenheim have the option of gluten-free wafers and grape juice for communion.