three small anecdotes about the eucharist:

1. there were 14 of us or so, for adrianna's bday at the old spaghetti factory. they serve bread, and we had a bottle of not very good red. paul the baptist makes a joke about having eucharist right there and then. the sacramental ones among the anglicans are not really finding this funny. it's mostly a lame joke, but i am never sure what it means to be offended anymore. later on, nancy tells an anecdote about a priest sanctifying pretzels and beer in southern germany, later on, i think about my childhood with wonderbread and wonder. the host will be determined by what you have availble.
   
2. there is a conversation, half of which i understand, at class on monday, about kids taking the eucharist. i keep thinking about this idea of an open table, adults baptised and children baptised. people get angry in this discussion. i don't think i have ever cared to be angry about who gets to eat and who gets to drink.
   
3. chris and i are going to a lutheran church last sunday--chris's church. i have been curious about moving lower, but not too low that liturgy escapes. we talk about the eucharist, and about the gospel on the way to church, and the church itself barely post war, german, domestic, friendly. there are husbands and wives, children, everyone says the peace to everyone else. we sing the canticle of the turning, with discussions of the world turned upside down, and lyrics about tyrants being dragged from thrones. the eucharist was one bread, common like the cup. it tastes vaguely like cinamon. afterwards, it sits with the baked goods, at coffee hour, because the lutherans do not have a tabernacle. i have spent the last three days figuring out what is signifcant about this.