A few weeks ago we (Eastside Baptist Church) had a much needed spring cleaning day. The church attic is a place where many things get stored after a Christmas cantata , an Easter program, VBS or anything else that we must have thought would be a good idea to keep.
Where the overwhelming majority of it was either thrown away, taken home by the helpful volunteers or donated to a local second hand store; a few treasures were discovered.
For example, a box (with several years of dust on it) containing 150+ glass communion cups. Most of the cups were in an old plastic bag that the heat from the attic had been decaying for the past few decades.
I’ve been pastoring here since June of 2001 and didn’t even know we owned glass communion cups. Some of these cups were still in original packaging from Broadman Supplies. One dozen glass communion cups for $1.25. It took me a while, but I eventually found a supplier of glass communion cups; 20 for $48.20 (or 1,000 plastic/disposable cups for $17.50).
The newspaper that some of the communion cups were wrapped in was older than the church I pastor, so that means someone gave them to Eastside sometime in the past, likely from their church attic. The news paper was dated, September 7, 1955.
That was a fun read, too.
The paper used to wrap some of the glass communion cups was the classified section with some advertisements. The deal of the day must have been bulk soap; 20 bars of soap for $1.00.
I think for tonight, Good Friday, we will use the glass cups.