The Body of Christ, Gluten Free
It's Advent, and in 16 months of living in San Francisco, I'd never gone to church. So on Sunday morning, I tagged along with St. Frances. She goes to the 11 o'clock service at Grace Cathedral pretty regularly, taking the 24 to the 1, and on days when it's nice, laying out in the sun afterwards in the park on top of Nob Hill.
Sunday it was overcast and very cold, so we didn't do any of that but I had a uniquely San Francisco church-going experience:
- After we got off the 24, while we waited for the 1, we grabbed coffee and I fretted about the Catholic prohibition on eating one hour before receiving Communion. Episcopalians have no such rule, St. Frances assured me, so I snagged a banana too.
- As we walked through the cathedral's courtyard we passed three older Chinese folks doing tai chi, with fans!
- Quite by accident, when we went up to receive Communion, we ended up in the line for gluten-free wafers.
- After the service, we went down to the church basement and bought homemade enchiladas from the bakesale.
- Then, St. F took me to the top floor of the Fairmont, which had a real, edible, walk-in gingerbread house in the lobby. Of course, you weren't supposed to actually eat the gingerbread house. It wasn't gluten free.
