Your Worship or Your Health: Part III

This is the third in a three-part series in which I reflect on public health issues arising out of our corporate worship. This segment is concerned with Holy Communion:

With respect to communion, debate rages over several options:
 whether it is safer for people to drink from the chalice (counterpoint: they spread the disease with their lips);
 to intinct the consecrated bread into the chalice (counterpoint: now you have multiple fingers in the cup rather than multiple lips); or
 whether the priest should intinct the consecrated bread in the chalice and lay it on the tongue of the communicant (counterpoint: now you have the priest’s fingers touching multiple tongues, confounding the partisans of the first two approaches).
 Several churches I know of have gone to wiping the chalice with a vodka-soaked cloth – not appropriate for Trinity as a church where we actually offer consecrated grape juice for those who cannot or choose not to consume alcohol.

Welcome to my world. With considerable reflection and prayer, and in consultation with others, I have thought it wiser to re-frame the question: Instead of asking,“How do we change what we are doing to minimize risks of the flu?” I have considered the question, “How can we continue to provide a worship environment in which the members of our congregation and our guests can at the same time freely worship God and feel safe?”

With this question in mind, I have concluded that the following approach is the simplest, most prudent, most effective and the most faithful for this congregation with respect to Holy Communion:

Perhaps the most helpful information here is a reminder of one of the fundamental principles of our theology of the Eucharist: That reception of communion under either species alone (bread or wine/juice, Body or Blood) is full and sufficient participation in the entire sacrament. In other words, one receives the full grace and blessing of the Eucharist by receiving only the consecrated bread. The Roman Catholics administered communion this way for centuries. So, rather than entering into ultimately unsatisfying suggestions about how we might modify our procedure for administering the chalice, we will leave it up to each person to follow the practice that they think is best for them. If you are concerned about the possibility of contracting either flu virus by participating in the common cup, my suggestion is that you refrain from the common cup until such time as you are comfortable resuming the practice. After you have received the consecrated bread, simply return to your seat without waiting for the Eucharistic Minister. At the same time, everyone else will be free to continue to receive communion in the manner in which they customarily receive it.

Some further considerations:

If you think you have the flu or a flu-like virus, public health departments suggest that you stay at home. The spread of flu may be decreased if people with flu-like illness stay home for at least 24 hours after they are free of fever (considered 100.9°) without the use of fever-reducing medications.

If you are at high risk of contracting the flu or of medical complications from the flu, consider the risks of attending any gatherings – at church or otherwise – where you will have increased exposure if there is widespread flu in our community.

I hope that you find this review helpful, and that you will continue to feel comfortable worshipping with our community in a manner that is both uplifting and safe within the limits of public worship. Please feel free to call me with any questions or concerns.

Have a blessed day! Your brother in Christ, Don+