Saturday, January 5, 2013

Communion


First Presbyterian Church of Moultrie celebrates Communion on the first Sunday of every month. Several years ago, I volunteered to bake the Communion bread. It was nothing new for me because my paternal grandmother, Gustava Lee Roth Stinson, baked the bread and prepared communion for many years at my home church in Cincinnati, Price Hill Baptist Church. My mother assumed the responsibility when Me-Maw needed help. I was in my teens, so we made it a family endeavor. Three generations of Stinson women always had great fun in the kitchen on Ebenezer Road on the Saturdays when we prepared the bread. It is really quite easy. The recipe is one that Mother used from her red-and-white checked Better Homes & Gardens cookbook. It is nothing more than pie crust...flour, shortening, salt and water. Me-Maw had a metal-edged ruler that she used to cut the dough into squares before baking. I still use it today. My rolling pin belonged to Mother, as well as the pastry blender. I use a piece of cotton cloth on which to roll the dough. I'm sure it came from a scrap that was left over from one of the many dresses that Mother sewed for me. It looks like a pattern straight from the 60's! I have used it for so many years that it is impregnated with shortening and flour that has formed a kind of Teflon coating that keeps the dough from sticking. Now that Me-Maw & Mother are gone, you might think that I prepare the bread alone. Absolutely not! The spirits of these two amazing ladies are right there with me in the kitchen every time. Today as I was preparing the bread, Henry Klar called to tell me about someone from our church who needed prayer. Henry starts the telephone prayer chain and I send a message on the email prayer chain to about 20 members. I told Henry that I would send an email as soon as I finished baking the Communion bread. His parting comment was, "The Lord be with you as you bake the bread." I replied, "He always is!"  I suddenly realized that Communion for me was not only celebrated in the sanctuary of my church.  I was celebrating Communion right here in my kitchen at 109 Buck Creek Road...Communion with God and communion with Me-Maw and Vera!  It doesn't get much better than that.

My tools for making Communion bread.  See what I mean about the 1960's cloth?

Gustava & Herb Stinson (Me-Maw & Pe-Paw) in the Price Hill Baptist Church parking lot in 1954.  The black Pontiac on the left is their car, purchased from their son-in-law at Sieve Pontiac

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