what are we to do regarding communion trays

Christmas is second simply to Easter as the vacation nearly probable to attract churchgoers. In the coming weeks, more people than usual will be filing into churches big and pocket-size, and many of those parishioners will be taking Communion.

The overlap of the religious rite with common cold and influenza season raises an uncomfortable question: Is receiving Communion sanitary?

Many Communion practices wing in the confront of the 24-hour interval-to-day precautions most educated adults ordinarily take to prevent illness. A contempo New Yorker article chronicled how hand sanitizer has get one of the fastest growing industries in America, thank you to increased awareness and business concern about the spread of germs.

Taking Communion is 1 of the virtually sacred acts of the Christian faith. Staff of life and wine (often grape juice, these days) are consumed as tribute to Jesus Christ, with the wine (or juice) viewed as symbolic of his blood and the bread his body, and the sacrifice he fabricated through his crucifixion. It too serves as a remembrance of his Last Supper, hence the term the Lord's Supper to refer to Communion.

Communion practices vary past denomination and even by individual parishes. Many evangelical churches pass trays of tiny private cups of grape juice and a split tray containing bread pieces or wafers, said Elesha Coffman, an assistant professor of church history at Iowa'south Academy of Dubuque Theological Seminary, which is Presbyterian. "Those practices did develop out of concerns about germ-sharing about a century agone," she said.

Simply some churches still rely on older methods for administering the sacrament. Specifically, the cup-sharing method, in which one chalice is filled and re-used by all parishioners. (Here is a recent video of the exercise in an Episcopal church building. Skip ahead to around 44 minutes in.)

Debra, a New York-based lawyer who grew upwards in the Episcopal Church, said the do has never bothered her. Only it does trouble her children, who spent much of their early lives in the Baptist Church, where the individual-cups method is the norm. She said when they attended an Episcopal service and were asked to potable from a common loving cup, "They absolutely refused to have Communion," fearing germs. When asked if the potential for germ-sharing bothered her, she scoffed: "Non at all."

"During flu season, it's a bad idea,"said Elaine Larson, an associate dean at Columbia University's Mailman Schoolhouse of Public Wellness. "The trouble is flu is contagious nearly 24 hours before there are symptoms."

What about the evangelicals' method, in which hundreds of people take bread from the aforementioned food tray—is that as well problematic? "Theoretically, I suppose," Larson said. "Just that might be taking it too far. Unless someone was acutely ill, they'd accept to accept an awful lot of germs on their hands to spread them."

With a shared cup, nevertheless, there is the possibility of spreading the influenza or common cold germs, or even passing on cold sores. Even wiping the loving cup, which is often washed between those receiving Communion, doesn't exercise the trick—the same material is wiping up later countless people.

Larson said she's received Communion and never worried much about the wellness risks, despite existence someone who deals with the spread of germs for a living. "I don't call back near it. A lot of more than serious things to worry about."

But she did accept words of communication for churches and churchgoers. If you're sick, it's probably best to pass on Communion. "Although that'due south probably unlikely," for many people, she acknowledged. She also sang the praises of individual cups. "For large churches, little cups are a good idea," she said.

Some churches take taken it a stride further, by administering Communion in individual packs and then that no one shares a drink or touches their neighbors' bread.

Kirsty DePree, an associate minister at Manhattan's Marble Collegiate Church, said her parish is witting of germs in administering Communion. "We are mindful of influenza season. Definitely," she said. While the church uses individual cups on Sundays, during Wednesday evening services the church employs a practice known as intinction, in which each parishioner is given an individual piece of bread to dip into the cup.

But even the practice of intinction varies by congregation. Some churches consider intinction a more sanitary method, but only when done by a member of the clergy. One Anglican Church in Canada recently wrote of the practise, "Intinction is simply a defense against disease if done circumspectly: The priest (with make clean hands) must intinct, existence conscientious not to bear upon the wine with his/her fingers, and must and then place the wafer directly on the tongue of the communicant, again being conscientious not to touch any function of the recipient. If the communicant intincts for himself, or the priest contaminates either himself or the wine, it is pointless."

DePree said Marble Collegiate sometimes takes another flu-season precaution. During the "passing of the peace," when parishioners greet each other with handshakes, pastors encourage them to instead acknowledge each other with kind words. DePree said i of her co-pastors described such strategies equally "our way of showing consideration for people's health and wholeness."

But some centuries-long traditions die hard, fifty-fifty for adults who unremarkably are extremely health conscious. I possibility could but exist blind faith, but Elaine Larson attributed information technology to the comfort the church building brings people.

People remember, "We're all skillful friends and want to exercise Communion" she said.

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Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/can-you-catch-a-cold-at-communion

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