When it comes to matters liturgical, Episcopalians take satisfaction in knowing how to do them "decently and in order" (1 Cor. 14:40). Yet there is a growing practice at the altar of some of our finest and best churches that is such a departure from traditional Anglican theology and practice, it might be called "indecent."

I refer to the practice of dumping left over communion wafers into a ciborium at the end of a Eucharist to hold until they are needed. Then at some future service, when there are more communicants than anticipated, out comes the ciborium and everyone receives the host. They may, in fact, be from the last Sunday's eucharistic celebration, but may just as well have been left over from a wedding last May.

It is so easy! This practice saves time. It avoids the embarrassment of revealing that either the rector or the usher couldn't count. And the congregation never has to watch the rather unedifying show when clergy are stuffing extra wafers into their mouths or, worse yet, consuming several chalices of extra wine from behind a freestanding altar. Yes, we recycle the spiritual blood of our Lord Jesus Christ as well, with cruets or flagons handily stored in the tabernacle. The practical advantages of recycling the elements are obviously overwhelming.

But what is the theology? We do not need to go back to 16th-century formulas for transubstantiation, consubstantiation or the real presence to find contradictions with present practice. We need only to look to our rediscovery of the Eucharist as the central act of worship of the church. There is an integrity between the gathering of a community of the baptized, word and sacrament, with Holy Communion celebrated by those "ordered" by the church. Holy Communion is a part of eucharistic worship within that eucharistic community. It is not magic bread and wine that can be pulled out when convenient.

We have recognized in the rubrics of Book of Common Prayer 1979 that there may be members of that eucharistic community prevented from being present at the gathering on the Lord's Day and we have made provision "for the Communion of the sick, or of others who for weighty cause could not be present at the celebration" (BCP p. 408). This practical, pastoral provision had historic roots, but the abuses of the reserved sacrament in the pre-Reformation period had made it very rare within Anglicanism until the Oxford Movement of the 19th century.

As recently as the 1928 BCP it was forbidden: "... it shall not be taken out of the Church" (p. 84). But the same rubric that now makes provision for reserving the sacrament makes it clear that when there is any other bread and wine left at the end of the service, "the celebrant, or deacon, and other communicants, reverently eat and drink it, either after the communion of the people or after the dismissal." Casual and inappropriate use of the elements of communion apart from the community that has gathered to make Eucharist is not consistent with Anglican faith or practice.

And, lest we think that this is uniquely a concern within ECUSA, it is worth noting how some other recent Anglican prayer books deal with the subject. The Alternative Service Book, now widely used in the Anglican Church of Canada, has a rubric that reads, "Communion should be given at each celebration of the Eucharist from bread and wine consecrated at that liturgy" (p. 184). The new prayer book of the Church of the Province of New Zealand specifies "Any remaining consecrated bread and wine, unless required for the communion of persons not present, is consumed at the end of the distribution, or immediately after the dismissal of the community" (p. 516).

The curious thing is that the practice of storing wafers has crept into the life of the church without notice and just when we finally have a prayer book that makes reconsecration so easy, if, by chance, the count at the offertory was not accurate. It is a careless and sometimes lazy way of behaving around something we hold most sacred just at a time when, in our ecumenical relations, we are trying to be clearest about what is important to us.

Decently and in order?

The Rt. Rev. David B. Reed is the retired Bishop of Kentucky.