The Question Notice Paper for the forthcoming General Synod in July 2025 included the following Q&A exchange on gluten-free bread/non-alcoholic wine issue raised in February.

Q172 Mrs Abigail Ogier (Manchester) to ask the Chair of the Liturgical Commission: What progress has been made to ensure that people who are unable to consume gluten and/or alcohol in even trace amounts can receive holy communion?

The Bishop of Lichfield to reply as Chair of the Liturgical Commission:

A Thank you for this question which in its precision helps us to clarify several points:

1. Reduced-gluten bread and reduced-alcohol wine are appropriate matter for the celebration of Holy Communion in the Church of England. With reference to these, it may be helpful to repeat my answer to a supplementary question at General Synod in February this year, when I said: ‘Many Church of England churches across the country routinely offer what is described as ‘gluten free’ bread or ‘non-alcoholic’ wine at Holy Communion, and many professional ecclesiastical suppliers provide wine or bread which may contain very small traces of alcohol or gluten, yet which can legitimately be considered as non-alcoholic or gluten free. In particular, the legal definition of ‘gluten-free’ as 20 parts per million is satisfied by several wheat-derived liturgical products, and I understand that Coeliac UK recommends these.’
2. Communion should normally be received in both kinds separately, but where necessary may be received in one kind.
3. Both the Book of Common Prayer and Common Worship indicate that believers who cannot physically receive the sacrament (including those who may have an allergy or intolerance to one or both elements) 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.
4. The Accessible Liturgy Working Group, on which the Liturgical Commission has representation, is undertaking some work a) to clarify and publicise questions of nomenclature; b) to provide guidance for best practice in the administration of Holy Communion; and c) to consider the particular case you mention, where consuming even trace amounts of gluten or alcohol will not be possible for a communicant, and the theological, liturgical, and legal basis for the teaching of the Church of England on this matter.

Comment

In a guest post on 17 February 2025, the Revd Professor Andrew Atherstone, a member of the General Synod’s House of Clergy, and a member both of the Church of England’s Liturgical Commission and of the Faith and Order Commission reviewed the origins of Canon B17 and concluded by proposing that Synod should look again at this question for the changed world of the 2020s:

“A better way forward is necessary. The time is ripe for these questions to be reopened by the House of Bishops and the General Synod. We need canons fit for today’s context, which reflect the best models of pastoral care, which allow liberty and generosity across the variety of the Church of England’s eucharistic traditions, and which enable as many communicants as possible to be welcomed fully and to receive both bread and wine at Holy Communion”.