AIUI, wee cuppies are expressly forbidden in the Church of England, and this may be true of other Anglican churches, too.
Wee cuppies would certainly trigger a mild disciplinary in this neck of the woods as they are contrary to the rubrics of the BCP. Common Cup is an unlikely transmission route, as, according to a doctor friend, the main route of transmission for Covid-19 is air-bourn particles getting into the respiratory system. He is of the opinion that common cup is not going a problem. The one or two occasions on which church functions have served to spread Covid-19 have tended to be occasions on which groups of people occupied the same space at a relatively high density with an infected person.
The restrictions we have at the moment basically two-fold:
1. We are required to maintain 6' social spacing between household groups, and not to exceed 50% of posted capacity. This limits us to somewhere between 30 and 83. As our ASA is about 20-23, this is not a difficulty. That said, this would be a mighty inconvenient time for a revival.
2. Masks are optional for religious services, but encouraged.
We have pretty much reverted to normal since May 14th which is when the stage 1 easing restrictions came into effect. There are a few differences in procedure.
1. The plate is no longer passed, but left by the door so folks can drop their offering in when they arrive, and
2. Instead of encouraging people to sit together and towards the front, they are being encouraged to spread out.
3. Communion is administered in both kinds to small groups who come up the altar, receive, and then go back to their seats via the side aisles. The next group in not allowed to come up into the chancel until the previous group is safely in the side aisles.
Coffee time has been suspended until after Labor Day (in reality until further notice), and we are very limited on midweek activities at the moment. Daily MP is circulating between the nave, the chancel, and the chapel so we do not over use any given space. Midweek Eucharists are confined to major feasts at the moment.
We, too, have the advantage of a large church, with various separate chapels...
Sunday MP (just 2-3 peeps) in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel; Sunday Mass in the Nave, with a miked portable lectern for the one person reading/leading Prayers of the Faithful - it's easier to get the portable lectern on camera for live-streaming than the 'regular' lectern; Sunday EP & Benediction in the Chancel (5-6 - no choir stalls, so lots of room for chairs) Tuesday Mass (4-5) in the All Souls' Chapel Thursday Mass (up to 10) in the Lady Chapel or close by in the north aisle of the nave (where there are no pews, but room for a chair or two)
Without wishing to enter into a discussion re wee cuppies (for wine, or for bread), or to disparage those who use them, I prefer the simplicity with which we are dealing with Communion at the moment - wafer only! BTW, the wafers consecrated for distribution to the Faithful are kept covered until required.
So much less work for FatherInCharge and Madam Sacristan...
Common Cup is an unlikely transmission route, as, according to a doctor friend, the main route of transmission for Covid-19 is air-bourn particles getting into the respiratory system.
True, but there are plenty of instances of contact transmission (people touching contaminated surfaces, then their faces.) It's just easier to control, by not touching your face, and washing your hands.
I don't think common cup is sensible with Covid in the area. (Of course, if nobody has Covid, it doesn't matter what you do.) If cuppies are a no-go, I'd be avoiding the cup for the duration.
Common Cup is an unlikely transmission route, as, according to a doctor friend, the main route of transmission for Covid-19 is air-bourn particles getting into the respiratory system.
True, but there are plenty of instances of contact transmission (people touching contaminated surfaces, then their faces.) It's just easier to control, by not touching your face, and washing your hands.
I don't think common cup is sensible with Covid in the area. (Of course, if nobody has Covid, it doesn't matter what you do.) If cuppies are a no-go, I'd be avoiding the cup for the duration.
To be honest, the levels of coronavirus/Covid-19 have been low around here, so it has not been necessary to take any extraordinary precautions - other than banning intinction.
Doctrinally speaking, we cannot deny the Cup to the laity (Article 30), so that discussion ends right there. Our diocese kind of aligns with the Protestant/Evangelical side of Anglicanism, so the Bible and the Articles are the last word and woe betide anyone who suggests otherwise. The 'wee cuppies' are out too, partly for being contrary to the rubrics and partly for fear that having once been introduced we would never get rid of them. So, at the moment, it is communion with common cup (if the laity choose to abstain, we are pretending not to notice) or Morning Prayer/Ante-Communion. If coronavirus/C-19 did suddenly become a serious problem around here, then we would suspend Communion services until further notice.
On a side note. This situation would be a lot less disruptive were we still on the pattern of service we were on when I was a kid 40 years ago.
Single cups are not acceptable under government guidelines. From the Government Guidelines
Speaking, singing and chanting should not happen across uncovered consumables (other than consumables to be used by the celebrant alone). Instead, consumables should be securely covered, and prior to the receptacle being opened, it should be cleaned, hands should be washed or gloves worn.
Sorry folks. It is more than only bread, the bread needs to be in a container like a ciborium during the consecration.
I have seen them but the present practice is to remove them when the Eucharistic part of the service begins so as it simply being a matter of the 'elder'* taking the tray off the table.
*'Elder' in quote marks as it is likely to be an elder, deacon or another person in a position of authority within the congregation.
1. We are required to maintain 6' social spacing between household groups, and not to exceed 50% of posted capacity. This limits us to somewhere between 30 and 83. As our ASA is about 20-23, this is not a difficulty. That said, this would be a mighty inconvenient time for a revival.
Bishop of London Sarah Mullally has said that the church's Legal Advisory Commission believed it was "contrary to law for individual cups to be used for each communicant", citing the 1547 Sacrament Act,
Other legal experts state "In our opinion, there is no bar in the 1547 Act to the use of individual cups when distributing communion in both kinds, and neither the Canons of the Church of England nor the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer contain or impose any prohibition."
The wafer comment is a side issue where the lawyers say that if individual communion cups are unlawful, then separate communion wafers – rather than one shared loaf of bread – might well be too.
Having just looked at the text of the 1547 Act as is currently in force I would have thought the more serious breach is failing to exhort intending communicants 1 day prior to examination of conscience. I can't see anything in the act that prevents wee cuppies, though it clearly does permit communion other than in both kinds where "necessitie otherwise require".
Canon law, however, does require that the win be brought to the communion table in a flagon or cruet, which would preclude the pre-filling of wee cuppies. As for leavened bread vs wafers, the rubric specifies only that "it shall suffice that the Bread be such as is usual to be eaten". The actual requirement is "the best and purest Wheat Bread that conveniently may be gotten", which would certainly include wafers.
I honestly have to ask in all this - does God really care about this little details?
Have to agree. I think only a few real nerds are fully conversant with all canon law and I'm sure many (all?) C of E churches break numerous rules regularly, sometimes knowingly!
The rules are for us, not for God (at least not directly). The process of observing the rules is an aid to care and reverence. Yes, in extremis the rules can and should be broken but I think it's important to know what they are so that you think before breaking them, and consider the ramifications of doing so.
I honestly have to ask in all this - does God really care about this little details?
No, I doubt it. I agree with @Arethosemyfeet that the rules are for our benefit. Aside from aiding in our care and reverence, these details can help underscore or detract from the meaning of the sacrament
I have the misfortune to teach Canon Law, and Liturgy, so I have my own particular relationship to rules. Contrary to the opinion of some of my colleagues we are saved by grace, not rubrics. The latter exist due to the human species' infinite gift for cocking it up or doing something daft; mind you, so does the former, but on a much more important plane.
From the comments of the UK shipmates, I am glad I am not having to navigate ecclesiastical guidelines, as well as those coming forth from state gummint. Dealing with two sets of screwed up paper-shufflers would be an absolute nightmare. One is bad enough.
Interestingly, the Church of Ireland canonically should only use ordinary bread. Usually it's whatever the churchwarden happens to have in the larder that Sunday morning. The method of preparation is to put it under the rolling pin before cutting into cubes, to limit crumbs, so there aren't sneaky little crumbly pieces of 'Jesus' all over the table, floor and the rail by the end of the service. Because although the CofI traditionally is low down the candle it does still believe (or should) that the Bread and Wine are actually Christ's Body and Blood - even if 'only' spiritually. So every morsel and drop is to be consumed before home time; every crumb. Home Communions traditionally had to be done on a Sunday immediately following the service before the blessed bread went stale. No reservation permitted, of course.
Some CofI churches do now use wafers because of the usefulness of being able to consecrate them, and use them throughout the week for home visits.
The common cup - to me - is important because it's one of those things that Jesus is said to have done at the institution of the Communion supper. He took the loaf and broke it, so a batch of bread in small bits - whether wafer or Mother's Pride is much the same thing. But as far as we can tell from the gospel, he took the cup and blessed it and gave it to the disciples, asking them to drink from it. Whether he would've minded had they decanted it into their own cups, is impossible to say. I just think the symbolism of the common cup is rather special. But that's my own personal feeling about it.
The common cup - to me - is important because it's one of those things that Jesus is said to have done at the institution of the Communion supper. He took the loaf and broke it, so a batch of bread in small bits - whether wafer or Mother's Pride is much the same thing. But as far as we can tell from the gospel, he took the cup and blessed it and gave it to the disciples, asking them to drink from it. Whether he would've minded had they decanted it into their own cups, is impossible to say. I just think the symbolism of the common cup is rather special. But that's my own personal feeling about it.
As I understand it, there’s some scholarly question about whether, if this was the Passover meal, it was one cup passed around or a cup at each person’s place. In the latter event, “this cup” would be understood to mean “the cup we drink at this time.” But this gets into scholarly questions about what exactly the Passover meal looked like at the time of Jesus.
Well, we 'did' Communion this morning. We have oval trays which normally take 24 cuppies in two concentric rings; instead, we used 16 cups (to provide for spacing) with little cubes of bread in the outermost ones and wine in the others. We didn't use our usual bread plates.
The deacons serving, who pointedly santised their hands and put on facemasks before doing so, moved freely between the pews as they are now spaced 2m apart, so there was no passing from hand to hand. People were not handed anything but took both cups together, hopefully without touching anything else, and then ate and drank when indicated. I had my own roll (which I broke at the appropriate moment) and chalice.
As it's the first Communion since March (although we have done it online), it felt very special.
And, in answer to your earlier question, no, I don't think God worries too much about the details. What's important is our obedience to the command 'Do this in remembrance of Me'...
Interestingly, the Church of Ireland canonically should only use ordinary bread. Usually it's whatever the churchwarden happens to have in the larder that Sunday morning. The method of preparation is to put it under the rolling pin before cutting into cubes, to limit crumbs, so there aren't sneaky little crumbly pieces of 'Jesus' all over the table, floor and the rail by the end of the service. Because although the CofI traditionally is low down the candle it does still believe (or should) that the Bread and Wine are actually Christ's Body and Blood - even if 'only' spiritually. So every morsel and drop is to be consumed before home time; every crumb. Home Communions traditionally had to be done on a Sunday immediately following the service before the blessed bread went stale. No reservation permitted, of course.
Some CofI churches do now use wafers because of the usefulness of being able to consecrate them, and use them throughout the week for home visits.
The common cup - to me - is important because it's one of those things that Jesus is said to have done at the institution of the Communion supper. He took the loaf and broke it, so a batch of bread in small bits - whether wafer or Mother's Pride is much the same thing. But as far as we can tell from the gospel, he took the cup and blessed it and gave it to the disciples, asking them to drink from it. Whether he would've minded had they decanted it into their own cups, is impossible to say. I just think the symbolism of the common cup is rather special. But that's my own personal feeling about it.
I share your attachment to the common cup. I get very worried about the implicit privatizing of the sacrament that I perceive in individual wafers and individual cups. I also have a bit of a thing about Communion being with broken bread - whether wafer or leavened. We have dropped into the habit of using the priest's wafers, broken into four or six, for everyone, and it works well for us. It also solved the problem of having to throw out quite a lot of the little wafers because they became stale. The maker's label 'remains fresh for up to two years' needs the words 'but not in Virginia' adding to it. Mind you, the poor souls have their factory somewhere up in Yankeeland, so they probably do manage to stay fresh for two years up there!
I am fond of pointing out that the CofI is not so much low on the candle, but rather it just didn't go up it when nearly everyone else did. I always enjoyed services in Ireland because (a) I could be reasonably sure of finding Morning Prayer, and (b) there generally was not a lot of fussing around. I am one of those who prefers a simple service done well, to an elaborate one done poorly, so I was general pretty comfortable on the ancestral patch, even though I set off with mildly Anglo-Catholic preferences.
Is reception in the hand always less conducive to the spread of disease than reception in the mouth? Does it depend on the disease and how it is transmitted? The way people traditionally received in the mouth involved no contact between the hands of the distributor of communion and the saliva of the communicant, but nowadays both clergy and laypeople may not be as well-trained in how to avoid such contact. I have heard some priests say that they were less likely to touch someone's lips or tongue distributing communion this way than they would be to inadvertently touch part of someone's hand while distributing communion in the way more commonly done today.
But even with no contact with the communicant's mouth or saliva, a germ like Covid is likely to be in someone's breath (I would imagine yearly epidemics that are also quite deadly like the flu would be too), and a priest's hands are likely to get breathed on while distributing communion in the mouth.
Outside of a pandemic like Covid, though, does anyone know if science has come down on whether distributing by hand is definitively safer than distributing by mouth (or by flicking a spoon as in done in Eastern Churches)? Hands have all kinds of germs on them too, including ones that come from people's mouths and noses as well as ones from going to the bathroom, which can also be quite harmful in much of the world. I think for Covid receiving in the hand is definitely safer (although I at least for now given the state of the epidemic in my country am much to paranoid to receive at all).
I once read on an official Orthodox Website (was it OCA) that it was wrong to believe that anyone could ever get sick from receiving something as holy as communion. But I wasn't sure whether this meant that germs could not live on the surface of the consecrated elements, the vessels they are in, or the hands of the people handling those vessels, and infect people in this way. Other Orthodox groups may also disagree with this statement (this was something written before Covid, during another viral scare). Are there denominations that have made definitive statements as to whether there can be a disease-causing agent in the elements consumed in Holy Communion?
I have been told there is a very tiny theoretical risk of virus transmission through communion, but it is so small it is more or less in the meteor hitting the bathroom of your house whilst you are in the tub category. I cannot think of anything about the mode of administration that would make a significant difference to that, though I strongly suspect wafer bread and port might be less likely to play host to a virus than "Wonderloaf" and pasteurized grape juice, but I doubt that even that factor is significant.
The only extra precautions have I been making during Covid has been using hand sanitizer before putting the elements on the Table, and before and after Communion, and refraining from intinction just in case my aim is not as good as I think it is, and I get saliva on my fingers and end up touching my eyes or nose before I have chance to wash my hands again. After the first few weeks, I resumed administering the host on to the tongues of the Anglo-Catholic minority in the parish without any qualms on either their part, mine, or the rest of the congregation.
I have been told there is a very tiny theoretical risk of virus transmission through communion, but it is so small it is more or less in the meteor hitting the bathroom of your house whilst you are in the tub category.
An Australian epidemiologist once described it as "as likely as being kicked to death by a duck."
That said, when presiders in our neck of the wood preside and administer according to current protocol our little bits of Jesus come strongly flavoured with sanitizer.
Glad y’all liked it, and that it provided needed morning brightening, @Cathscats. And in case you didn’t click on the link to the church and see it, they are selling dancing priest tee shirts. All proceeds go to the parish’s sister parish in the Dominican Republic.
Glad y’all liked it, and that it provided needed morning brightening, @Cathscats. And in case you didn’t click on the link to the church and see it, they are selling dancing priest tee shirts. All proceeds go to the parish’s sister parish in the Dominican Republic.
And I note that the t-shirt design came from the diocesan bishop!
Given that today is St Giles' day, I went to visit the High Kirk of St Giles in Edinburgh.
I was pleased to see that there were quite a few people looking around, though I couldn't actually find a place just to sit and pray. There were the requisite 50 places laid out for those attending the Sunday service,but there didn't seem to be any access to the seats during the week.
What surprised me was that the 'holy shop' had a good number of rosaries on sale. I asked if many people bought them. 'Oh,yes, 'said the Polish sounding lady who was in charge.' We are all Christians,' she then added and I agreed.
There were the requisite 50 places laid out for those attending the Sunday service,but there didn't seem to be any access to the seats during the week.
If access were permitted, they'd have to be regularly sanitised, perhaps several times a day and also before worship. Keeping people away from them will reduce the cleaning burden significantly.
Comments
This refers to the legal position in the Church of England
Wee cuppies would certainly trigger a mild disciplinary in this neck of the woods as they are contrary to the rubrics of the BCP. Common Cup is an unlikely transmission route, as, according to a doctor friend, the main route of transmission for Covid-19 is air-bourn particles getting into the respiratory system. He is of the opinion that common cup is not going a problem. The one or two occasions on which church functions have served to spread Covid-19 have tended to be occasions on which groups of people occupied the same space at a relatively high density with an infected person.
The restrictions we have at the moment basically two-fold:
1. We are required to maintain 6' social spacing between household groups, and not to exceed 50% of posted capacity. This limits us to somewhere between 30 and 83. As our ASA is about 20-23, this is not a difficulty. That said, this would be a mighty inconvenient time for a revival.
2. Masks are optional for religious services, but encouraged.
We have pretty much reverted to normal since May 14th which is when the stage 1 easing restrictions came into effect. There are a few differences in procedure.
1. The plate is no longer passed, but left by the door so folks can drop their offering in when they arrive, and
2. Instead of encouraging people to sit together and towards the front, they are being encouraged to spread out.
3. Communion is administered in both kinds to small groups who come up the altar, receive, and then go back to their seats via the side aisles. The next group in not allowed to come up into the chancel until the previous group is safely in the side aisles.
Coffee time has been suspended until after Labor Day (in reality until further notice), and we are very limited on midweek activities at the moment. Daily MP is circulating between the nave, the chancel, and the chapel so we do not over use any given space. Midweek Eucharists are confined to major feasts at the moment.
Sunday MP (just 2-3 peeps) in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel;
Sunday Mass in the Nave, with a miked portable lectern for the one person reading/leading Prayers of the Faithful - it's easier to get the portable lectern on camera for live-streaming than the 'regular' lectern;
Sunday EP & Benediction in the Chancel (5-6 - no choir stalls, so lots of room for chairs)
Tuesday Mass (4-5) in the All Souls' Chapel
Thursday Mass (up to 10) in the Lady Chapel or close by in the north aisle of the nave (where there are no pews, but room for a chair or two)
Without wishing to enter into a discussion re wee cuppies (for wine, or for bread), or to disparage those who use them, I prefer the simplicity with which we are dealing with Communion at the moment - wafer only! BTW, the wafers consecrated for distribution to the Faithful are kept covered until required.
So much less work for FatherInCharge and Madam Sacristan...
True, but there are plenty of instances of contact transmission (people touching contaminated surfaces, then their faces.) It's just easier to control, by not touching your face, and washing your hands.
I don't think common cup is sensible with Covid in the area. (Of course, if nobody has Covid, it doesn't matter what you do.) If cuppies are a no-go, I'd be avoiding the cup for the duration.
To be honest, the levels of coronavirus/Covid-19 have been low around here, so it has not been necessary to take any extraordinary precautions - other than banning intinction.
Doctrinally speaking, we cannot deny the Cup to the laity (Article 30), so that discussion ends right there. Our diocese kind of aligns with the Protestant/Evangelical side of Anglicanism, so the Bible and the Articles are the last word and woe betide anyone who suggests otherwise. The 'wee cuppies' are out too, partly for being contrary to the rubrics and partly for fear that having once been introduced we would never get rid of them. So, at the moment, it is communion with common cup (if the laity choose to abstain, we are pretending not to notice) or Morning Prayer/Ante-Communion. If coronavirus/C-19 did suddenly become a serious problem around here, then we would suspend Communion services until further notice.
On a side note. This situation would be a lot less disruptive were we still on the pattern of service we were on when I was a kid 40 years ago.
Sorry folks. It is more than only bread, the bread needs to be in a container like a ciborium during the consecration.
*'Elder' in quote marks as it is likely to be an elder, deacon or another person in a position of authority within the congregation.
Given that God sometimes has a GSOH, maybe a revival might
happen?
Small congregations often use a single large wafer which is scored to break into a pre-defined number of pieces.
Other legal experts state "In our opinion, there is no bar in the 1547 Act to the use of individual cups when distributing communion in both kinds, and neither the Canons of the Church of England nor the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer contain or impose any prohibition."
The wafer comment is a side issue where the lawyers say that if individual communion cups are unlawful, then separate communion wafers – rather than one shared loaf of bread – might well be too.
See Darda below. As regards bread, the Book of Common Prayer rubrics insists that everyday white bread should be used not wafers.
If you are pernickety as regards a common cup, then it seems strange to ignore directive on a common loaf
Canon law, however, does require that the win be brought to the communion table in a flagon or cruet, which would preclude the pre-filling of wee cuppies. As for leavened bread vs wafers, the rubric specifies only that "it shall suffice that the Bread be such as is usual to be eaten". The actual requirement is "the best and purest Wheat Bread that conveniently may be gotten", which would certainly include wafers.
Have to agree. I think only a few real nerds are fully conversant with all canon law and I'm sure many (all?) C of E churches break numerous rules regularly, sometimes knowingly!
No, I doubt it. I agree with @Arethosemyfeet that the rules are for our benefit. Aside from aiding in our care and reverence, these details can help underscore or detract from the meaning of the sacrament
.
From the comments of the UK shipmates, I am glad I am not having to navigate ecclesiastical guidelines, as well as those coming forth from state gummint. Dealing with two sets of screwed up paper-shufflers would be an absolute nightmare. One is bad enough.
Some CofI churches do now use wafers because of the usefulness of being able to consecrate them, and use them throughout the week for home visits.
The common cup - to me - is important because it's one of those things that Jesus is said to have done at the institution of the Communion supper. He took the loaf and broke it, so a batch of bread in small bits - whether wafer or Mother's Pride is much the same thing. But as far as we can tell from the gospel, he took the cup and blessed it and gave it to the disciples, asking them to drink from it. Whether he would've minded had they decanted it into their own cups, is impossible to say. I just think the symbolism of the common cup is rather special. But that's my own personal feeling about it.
That said, I prefer a common cup.
The deacons serving, who pointedly santised their hands and put on facemasks before doing so, moved freely between the pews as they are now spaced 2m apart, so there was no passing from hand to hand. People were not handed anything but took both cups together, hopefully without touching anything else, and then ate and drank when indicated. I had my own roll (which I broke at the appropriate moment) and chalice.
As it's the first Communion since March (although we have done it online), it felt very special.
And, in answer to your earlier question, no, I don't think God worries too much about the details. What's important is our obedience to the command 'Do this in remembrance of Me'...
I share your attachment to the common cup. I get very worried about the implicit privatizing of the sacrament that I perceive in individual wafers and individual cups. I also have a bit of a thing about Communion being with broken bread - whether wafer or leavened. We have dropped into the habit of using the priest's wafers, broken into four or six, for everyone, and it works well for us. It also solved the problem of having to throw out quite a lot of the little wafers because they became stale. The maker's label 'remains fresh for up to two years' needs the words 'but not in Virginia' adding to it. Mind you, the poor souls have their factory somewhere up in Yankeeland, so they probably do manage to stay fresh for two years up there!
I am fond of pointing out that the CofI is not so much low on the candle, but rather it just didn't go up it when nearly everyone else did. I always enjoyed services in Ireland because (a) I could be reasonably sure of finding Morning Prayer, and (b) there generally was not a lot of fussing around. I am one of those who prefers a simple service done well, to an elaborate one done poorly, so I was general pretty comfortable on the ancestral patch, even though I set off with mildly Anglo-Catholic preferences.
But even with no contact with the communicant's mouth or saliva, a germ like Covid is likely to be in someone's breath (I would imagine yearly epidemics that are also quite deadly like the flu would be too), and a priest's hands are likely to get breathed on while distributing communion in the mouth.
Outside of a pandemic like Covid, though, does anyone know if science has come down on whether distributing by hand is definitively safer than distributing by mouth (or by flicking a spoon as in done in Eastern Churches)? Hands have all kinds of germs on them too, including ones that come from people's mouths and noses as well as ones from going to the bathroom, which can also be quite harmful in much of the world. I think for Covid receiving in the hand is definitely safer (although I at least for now given the state of the epidemic in my country am much to paranoid to receive at all).
I once read on an official Orthodox Website (was it OCA) that it was wrong to believe that anyone could ever get sick from receiving something as holy as communion. But I wasn't sure whether this meant that germs could not live on the surface of the consecrated elements, the vessels they are in, or the hands of the people handling those vessels, and infect people in this way. Other Orthodox groups may also disagree with this statement (this was something written before Covid, during another viral scare). Are there denominations that have made definitive statements as to whether there can be a disease-causing agent in the elements consumed in Holy Communion?
The only extra precautions have I been making during Covid has been using hand sanitizer before putting the elements on the Table, and before and after Communion, and refraining from intinction just in case my aim is not as good as I think it is, and I get saliva on my fingers and end up touching my eyes or nose before I have chance to wash my hands again. After the first few weeks, I resumed administering the host on to the tongues of the Anglo-Catholic minority in the parish without any qualms on either their part, mine, or the rest of the congregation.
An Australian epidemiologist once described it as "as likely as being kicked to death by a duck."
That said, when presiders in our neck of the wood preside and administer according to current protocol our little bits of Jesus come strongly flavoured with sanitizer.
“You’ll Be Back” from Hamilton: The Church Parody, courtesy of the Rev. Lonnie Lacy, rector of St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Tifton, Georgia (which is really begging for a Mystery Worshipper visit.)
And I note that the t-shirt design came from the diocesan bishop!
I was pleased to see that there were quite a few people looking around, though I couldn't actually find a place just to sit and pray. There were the requisite 50 places laid out for those attending the Sunday service,but there didn't seem to be any access to the seats during the week.
What surprised me was that the 'holy shop' had a good number of rosaries on sale. I asked if many people bought them. 'Oh,yes, 'said the Polish sounding lady who was in charge.' We are all Christians,' she then added and I agreed.