Recently we received the following email from a concerned parishioner:
School is ready to begin. There has been much in the news about flu and H1N1 this fall. With our aging congregation, I hope we will consider an alternative to intinction for communion as well as wandering all over the church for greeting and visiting.
This issue came to our attention last year and I did a considerable amount of study then. I would like to share several of the resources I found and the conclusions we drew. I would begin by encouraging you to read the church’s official statement on communion, the statement does not directly address these issues, but it’s important background information to know as we begin discussion. The General Board of Discipleship has an entire webpage addressing this issue and also links to a study that found that even drinking from a common cup did not pose additional health risks compared even to completely abstaining from the sacrament.
Jenny and I would be willing to consider offering communion by little prepackaged cups for people whose concern for a sterile experience would dissuade them from taking communion in any other manner (though I fear the experience might be sterile not only from a physical, but also a spiritual perspective). Unfortunately, it would appear taking communion from the little cups that are filled before the service is not sterile and still requires a great many precautions.
A major conclusion I drew from studying the threat of H1N1 and influenza in general is that the main problem is not the communion elements in and of themselves, but rather direct human to human contact. At the same time, Christian fellowship almost demands that direct human to human contact be preserved in some manner. Therefore I want to remind everyone that individually wrapped sanitizing wipes and bottles of sanitizing hand cleaner are available throughout the church building. Mindful that direct human to human contact presents the greatest danger we’re going to try moving the passing of the peace to the end of the worship service, so that those who prefer not to participate will have that option.
Links:
Official statement: http://www.gbod.org/worship/thisholymystery/
General Board of Discipleship Webpage: http://www.gbod.org/worship/default.asp?act=reader&item_id=7908&loc_id=9,10,277
The scientific study: http://archive.elca.org/lutheranpartners/archives/intinct.html
A good article that makes the point that those little cups we used to use are not sterile and still require precautions: http://www.gbod.org/worship/default.asp?act=reader&item_id=1766
Photo by flickr.com user Daniel Y. Go. Used under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic License. Please note that the cups we will be using will be sealed and will contain both juice and wafer.