Away and Back with an Idea

Mrs. Ref, The Kid and I went away for Memorial Day weekend.  We spent it at one of the small coastal towns that dot the Oregon coast.  While not a fantabulous weekend, it was time away with the family at the beach - and it didn't rain; so all in all it was a good time away.

On Sunday we attended church as a family, sitting in the same pew.  The service went well enough.  There were a few points that made me mutter (Mrs. Ref said, "Now I remember why I don't like sitting with you"), but, as I told the priest, I won't talk about them unless you want me to.

There was one aspect to the liturgy, though, that I will talk about.  It seems that being gluten free is all the rage.  Mrs. Ref is going that route because she's discovered that removing gluten from her diet makes her insides much more happier.  There are other people who are much more intolerant of gluten than she, and some who are seriously allergic to the stuff.

Knowing that this is a growing problem, the people at St. J's have come up with a unique solution.  In their bulletin they say, "If you require a gluten-free wafer, please turn your hands palms down at the rail and your request will be honored."  -- or something along those lines.

I thought this was a very good way to indicate to the priest/deacon/LEM distributing the bread who needs a gluten-free wafer.  It removes the problem of trying to get the ushers to indicate by hand or smoke signals, or gyrating around like a member of the catapult crew on the USS Nimitz, the people needing gluten-free wafers.

To date, we have a maximum of six people who require gluten-free wafers and I know them by sight; so that's easy.  But it may not always be so.

I'm thinking we'll begin this "hands down" approach and that will make things easy in the future.