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01/02/2005: "Cellophane"
It is the issue which threatens to tear our church apart, and it is all because of cellophane.
Let me explain. In our church we serve communion once a month. The elements consist of bread, which is plain homemade white bread, cut up into little cubes; and "the fruit of the vine", which is generally a well-known brand of grape juice. This feast is set out on the communion table by a committee sometime on Saturday afternoon, on silver trays. Some of the dishes for the bread stack and have covers; others are non-standard and do not have covers. They are draped with a white napkin. (The wine, which is irrelevant to this story, is poured into disposable shotglasses which fit into holes in other silver trays. On Sunday the congregation is offered this meal in their pews, one cube of bread and one glass of juice per person.) Between the dish and the napkin, some concerned individual decided there should be a layer of cellophane to keep the bread fresh between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. The problem is, no one told the clergy about this sanitary innovation, so they would uncover the bread in mid-ceremony and be faced with the awkward problem of peeling off the plastic and disposing of it with due solemnity. There were complaints at the staff meeting. emails flew. It was on the agenda of the Worship council. It may be discussed at Monday's session meeting, for all I know. Today, I took matters into my own hands. I, the sexton, removed the cellophane.
