The Church of England has officially affirmed that non-alcoholic wine and gluten-free bread cannot be used as substitutes when taking communion after clergy asked to end the “injustice” to those unable to consume wheat flour or alcohol.
Ahead of the General Synod taking place in London this week, the denomination’s leadership reiterated that the bread used in the sacrament must be made from wheat flour, and wine must be the fermented juice of the grape in order to be consecrated, The Telegraph reported.
While alternatives made from rice or potato flour are not permitted, wheat flour can be processed to remove most gluten, and alcohol can be extracted after fermentation, though some residue remains, according to the documents.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
The CofE’s official canon law states that the bread used for communion should be of the “best and purest wheat flour that conveniently may be gotten, and the wine the fermented juice of the grape, good and wholesome.”
The announcement came after the Rev. Canon Alice Kemp questioned whether the CofE could allow gluten-free and alcohol-free elements to be used.
“Can consideration be given to enable the legal use of gluten-free and alcohol-free elements at the Eucharist to remove the injustice of this exclusion?” she asked, according to The Guardian.
“Both priests and congregants who are unable to consume gluten and/or alcohol are forced to receive in one kind only (i.e., bread or wine) or may be prohibited from receiving both elements if they are unable to consume both gluten and alcohol.”
Michael Ipgrave, the bishop of Lichfield and chair of the church’s liturgical commission, said changing the rules would overturn two official stances of the CofE.
“First, that bread made with wheat and the fermented juice of the grape are the elements to be consecrated in Holy Communion; and second, that receiving Holy Communion in one kind in a case of necessity is not an ‘exclusion’ but full participation in the sacrament, as often practiced in the communion of the sick, or with children,” Ipgrave said.
“Indeed, even believers who cannot physically receive the sacrament are to be assured that they are partakers by faith of the body and blood of Christ, and of the benefits he conveys to us by them,” he added.
Communion is one of Christianity’s central sacraments, with bread and wine symbolizing the body and blood of Christ. Roman Catholics and Lutherans believe the bread and wine served at the Eucharist are converted into the body and blood of Christ through a process known as transubstantiation.
The Roman Catholic Church officially outlawed the use of gluten-free bread for communion in 2017, though the Vatican has decreed that it can still be made from genetically modified organisms.
“The bread used in the celebration of the Most Holy Eucharistic Sacrifice must be unleavened, purely of wheat, and recently made so that there is no danger of decomposition,” Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, wrote at the time, the BBC reported.
“It follows therefore that bread made from another substance, even if it is grain, or if it is mixed with another substance different from wheat to such an extent that it would not commonly be considered wheat bread, does not constitute valid matter for confecting the Sacrifice and the Eucharistic Sacrament.”
This week’s General Synod marks the first meeting since the Rt. Rev. Justin Welby resigned as archbishop of Canterbury in November 2024. His resignation came following reports he had failed to promptly alert police about serial abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps.
The same inquiry led to investigations of more CofE officials in connection with similar allegations.
The Most Rev. Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, who is acting in Welby’s place, will deliver the opening address in London. Cottrell has also faced calls to resign over the CofE’s handling of safeguarding failures.
The denomination has faced a sharp decline in trust among Anglicans after the spate of scandals; the CofE’s favorability rating dropped to 25% in a Feb. 2–3 YouGov survey of adults in England, Scotland and Wales, compared to 32% in November of last year. Unfavorable views rose from 39% in November to now 49%.
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
