Communion Bread & the Children Who Create It

                                                Bread for March Communion at Trenton United Church

One bread, one body, one Lord of all,

one cup of blessing which we bless;

and we, though many, throughout the earth,

we are one body in this one Lord.

3 Grain for the fields, scattered and grown,

gathered to one, for all.  

                                     Voices United 467

Yesterday Ruth, my wife, slipped out of the sanctuary at Trenton United just before the children left for their session. She was "on" for teaching the kids about bread, about it's signficance to our faith with the story of the Last Supper "this is my body, broken for you", Jesus as the Bread of Life, and communion bread as part of one of our two sacraments. 

What made this session stand out is that Ruth, a consummate bread-baker, taught the children the process of baking loaves. They watched the yeast as it performed it's minor miracle of bubbling fermentation, a foretaste of resurrection. Each child was given the opportunity to stir and knead the dough, and Ruth's observation was that any reluctance or indifference was swept aside by the literally hands-on experience. All of them participated enthusiastically, whatever their age. Sunday attendance for children can be sporadic -- anywhere from two to ten. Yesterday there were fourteen, with households having received notice that bread-making was the curriculum for the day. 

The dough and the formed loaves have to rise before heading into the oven, so Ruth wisely pre-baked small loaves for each child. The photos here are of the finished product which will be part of communion this coming Sunday. The aroma in our home was holy incense. 

Ruth has been baking bread for nearly half a century, and while we were living in Sudbury she had a small baking business out of our home. One of her customers was Jewish and would show up on Fridays for the Sabbath meal challah. 

She has also taught workshops on bread-baking and the connection with our Judeo/Christian traditions for years to people of all ages. She commented on our way home yesterday that no matter the age of participants, people are fascinated by making bread. We certainly discovered during the pandemic that people were willing to give the experience a whirl. 

Ruth has baked the bread for communion in congregations I served and now for Trenton United, our son Isaac's congregation for perhaps 30 years. She despised the miserly cubes of store-bought white bread which had become the United Church practice, always feeling that it was a contradiction of the soul-feeding generosity of Christ's love. I couldn't agree more. 

Please join us on Sunday to savour the delicious labour of our children.