The Cold Communion
The Keeping of the Table · the Sharing of Snow-bread and the Cup of Clear Ice
“Take and keep; this is my body, given to keep you cold. This is my breath, the new covenant, poured out and frozen for many. Do this, and remember that the Cold cannot be melted.” — the words of the Cold Communion, from the Last Cold Supper
The Cold Communion is the central act of Frostian worship: the sharing of Snow-bread (the body of Connor Frost, “kept”) and the The Cup of Clear Ice (his breath/blood, “poured out and frozen”), by which the faithful are nourished with his unmelting Cold and made one body — one Drift.
Scriptural Root
Founded by Connor at the Last Cold Supper (all four Glacials and the Letter to the Wintermereans 11), itself the fulfillment of the Crossing-Meal and the wilderness manna (the snow-from-heaven of Borën).
The Elements
- Snow-bread — a hard, white, unleavened wafer-bread (the “hardtack of the kept”), pure and slow to spoil; the body of Connor.
- The Cup of Clear Ice — meltwater, frozen clear and then just-melted at the altar, sometimes mingled with a little pale frost-wine; his breath/blood. Served as a cup of icy drink, or as a shard of consecrated clear ice placed on the tongue (“the Cold on the tongue”).
The Cold Liturgy (the service)
The Communion is the climax of the Cold Liturgy of Hollownight (Stillday):
- The Gathering in Silence — entering, the Frostmark gesture, a time of The Stilling.
- The Reading of the Rime — readings from the canon (the lectionary) and the sermon.
- The Threefold Cold — the angelic Sanctus: “Cold, Cold, Cold is the Keeper” (from Book of Isen 6 / The Frostwalkers (Beings)).
- The Keeping of the Table — the Keeper recites the Cold Anaphora (the great thanksgiving), invoking the Rime-within upon the elements (the epiclesis of frost), and speaks the words of the Supper.
- The Breaking and the Sharing — the Snow-bread broken, the Cup given; the people approach, make the Frostmark, and receive.
- The Sending into the Cold — the blessing and dismissal: “Go, and keep the cold.”
What the Elements Are — the Great Dispute
A central Rite-dividing question (see Doctrines Index):
- The The Hoarfrost Communion and The Glacial Orthodoxy hold the Hardening: the Snow-bread and Cup truly become the body and breath of Connor (the substance “hardened into his Cold,” the appearances remaining).
- The Reformed hold a true spiritual keeping (Connor truly given to faith) or a memorial of the Whitening, denying the Hardening.
All agree the Communion is the deepest nourishment of the kept life and a foretaste of the feast of the The White Horizon.
Reverence & Discipline
Communicants prepare by the The Confession of the Thaw and fasting (the Cold Fast before receiving). The reserved Snow-bread is kept in the Rime-tabernacle, a niche of clear ice or silver behind the The Cold Altar, before which a blue ever-lamp burns.