One Loaf, One Family

Every Sunday morning at Grace Community Church in Tupelo, Mississippi, eighty-three-year-old Martha Jenkins arrives early to bake communion bread. She has done this for thirty-seven years — mixing flour, water, olive oil, and a pinch of salt in the same ceramic bowl her mother once used. Martha kneads the dough with arthritic hands, presses it flat on a baking sheet, and scores it so it will break cleanly during the service.…