A communion kit

This is my new communion kit -- for celebrating the Eucharist with people in the hospital or at home. I'm totally excited about it, I'm afraid in part, because I feel like a little girl with a new tea set. But ALSO, because packing bread and wine in my attache hasn't really worked so well in the past (i.e., spills, not as special-looking).

I purchased it from a woman in Colorado who hand-makes them (or assembles them from handmade pieces made by other people) and gives the proceeds to charity. Many communion kits are made from mahogany, sterling silver, and crystal, and run $700-800. This one is ceramic and some kind of generic wood, and about $120. It's very simple and to be frank, a bit shoddy-looking. But maybe that's more like Jesus anyway. And it's sort of nice... you can tell everything was made by human beings.

Hand-burned cross on the front..

Little ceramic vessels, some with imperfections in the glaze. And the lid on the pyx doesn't exactly stay on, so all the wafers or bread would fall out I think. Maybe if I set it inside just right? Packed it in with the communion linens?

The candles sit on tiny pegs, and detach to go back inside the box.
(See first photo to see them lying inside the lid.) This detail is somewhat cheesey, and something I've never seen on "fancy" kits, but I like it. Makes the moment more liturgical, which is big stuff for us Episcopalians.

And aren't the tiny linens cute? (I know, I'm veering into tea set mode, here.)

The wine cruet (with the stopper) is also obviously going to be prone to spillage (and hard to clean). Sigh. But I also have a little glass jar included, with a screw-top, so that will be good. Hmm, seems I haven't avoided the spilling problem I have with my attache. Hmm.

Adam took these pictures with his fancy-pants camera and black background thing. Soon we're getting a Canon G9 that I will get to be custodian of, so more photos will return to the blog soon...