No purchase orders are filled out, nor is the Communion bread ripped out of packaging material at Bakerstown United Methodist Church in Richland Township, Allegheny County.

It is simply baked in a congregation member's kitchen and served once a month for Communion.

For the last 11 years, Dave and Dorothy Sarver have used a basic shortbread recipe to make 500 to 1,000 pieces of Communion bread for the 300-member congregation.

"Usually when you are making it, you are hoping it comes out right to represent the body of Christ," Dorothy Sarver said.

The leftovers are frozen and saved for next month or a special occasion Communion, such as Easter.

Shortbread dough doesn't take long to bake, but cutting it small enough for communion,

about a half-inch square,

can be a

bit

tricky.

"You have to cut it while it is still warm and you have to cut it fast, otherwise it will crumble," Dorothy Sarver said.

Before the Sarvers took over the task, their neighbor used the very same shortbread recipe to make Communion bread for the church. When it came time to pass the tradition on, the neighbor merely peered over the fence. But no matter how the tradition entered the Sarver home, for Dorothy Sarver the task touches her heart.

"It is very sentimental to me. It is the body of Christ and he died for us," Dorothy Sarver said.

In the Bible depiction of the night before Jesus Christ was crucified, it shows him having a final meal with his disciples.

They broke bread and sipped wine, which Jesus said were his body and blood.

Across Butler County, churches serve Communion as a symbol of the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples.

Whether it is served multiple times daily at Mass or during a weekly service on the last Sunday of the month, each church has a unique way of looking at Communion and the bread they use.

For Presbyterian congregations, it's up to each one how often they receive Communion.

At Meridian United Presbyterian Church, the congregation takes Communion together six times a year - an increase from last year's four times. The church uses homemade bread.

The Communion bread is baked by two women in the church, "one cookie sheet at a time," said the Rev. Steve Cahoon, pastor. Neither of the women knows where the recipe came from, but the ingredients are much like that of a sugar cookie.

In the Presbyterian faith, the bread is a symbol.

"It represents the body of Christ. The body of Christ is more the gathered congregation," Cahoon said.

It is because the bread represents the body of Christ that Cahoon said the act of taking Communion is a way of looking into the future rather than in remembrance of Christ's suffering.

"It represents a looking forward to the great banquet, when everyone will be drawn together," Cahoon said, referring to the "consummation of history" when Christians will join their savior in heaven.

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church is in flux about what type of bread to use with Communion.

"We have been experimenting with different types of bread," said the Rev. Timothy Bupp of Grace Lutheran. "We used to use wafers and we'd like to get back to using bread."

The search for a different bread began when the congregation introduced the tradition of intinction at the church's contemporary service. That's where communion is dunked into the wine and that's where the problem lies. Oftentimes the wafers and some types of bread crumble with the excess liquid.

So far, Syrian bread - a flat, round, almost unleavened bread - is working the best.

However, there is a problem.

"It is not attainable here in Butler and if you freeze it, it doesn't hold together as well as it does when it's fresh," Bupp said.

Another option is pumpernickel bread. Because there is molasses in it, it might hold together better, Bupp explained.

At the Lutheran church, Communion is looked at as the body of Christ and a representation, not just a representation alone.

"The identity of the bread and the identity of Christ are both there," Bupp said.

In the Catholic faith, believers receive Communion as the body of Christ. It's served at every Mass, which is celebrated a number of times a day, depending on the individual priests. Area Catholic churches purchase their bread, or hosts, from monasteries and convents.

"We buy our bread," said the Rev. John Getsy of St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Cabot.

The hosts are made from a flour and water mixture using no yeast. Getsy said there are presses to make different sizes of hosts.

"We order a smaller host that we take to nursing homes because its easier to swallow and we have a large host for Sunday Mass," Getsy said.