The foofoorah over the Swine Flue comes to church — the Episcopal Church, at least, where various dioceses and the national church have been discussing measures related to possible pandemics that have a particularly religious flavor to them.
“Swine flu is currently being handled by the health authorities. We are, however, prepared to respond through our church networks should we be needed,” said Abagail Nelson, senior vice president for programs at the New York headquarters of Episcopal Relief and Development, the church’s disaster-relief and economic-development agency.
About 1,600 people have been sickened in Mexico and 50 cases have been reported so far in the United States, but no deaths. After the outbreak was confirmed on April 24, a number of churches in Mexico City on Sunday, April 26 canceled services.
The Diocese of Colorado has sent a brochure to various parishes on preparedness, but for all we Episcopalian are Intensely Proper and, well, English, there’s all sorts of ways that sickness could be passed on.
Churches — like other public places where people gather regularly — could be sites of disease transmission. During previous outbreaks of illness, such as the incidence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003 in 37 countries, the U.S. and Canada, certain worship practices also came under scrutiny. During Episcopal Sunday services, many people shake hands or hug during part of the service called the “passing of the peace,” sip wine from the same communion chalice or dip the communion wafer in the wine.
Interestingly, a lot of folks think it’s safer to intinct the communion bread (dip it in one of the cups) than to eat the bread then drink from the cup. As someone who frequently mans the chalice at Sunday services, I’ve long known that’s not true — the “drinkers” just sip (and the chalice bearer then wipes the rim with a cloth), whereas some of the “dunkers” dunk their bread down to the second knuckle. Ick.
Episcopal Church diocesan bishops have the authority to order changes in worship, said Clay Morris, program officer for worship and spirituality, at the church center in New York. Research collected at his office, he said, shows that the practice of sharing the chalice, called the “common cup,” generally carries a very low risk of infection. “We are told repeatedly that the common cup is not a health hazard,” he said in an interview. Usually, the cup bearer wipes the rim and turns the cup after each person sips.
However, he said, the practice of dipping the wafer, called intinction, may carry a higher risk since fingers are also often dipped into the wine. During the SARS outbreak in Canada, at least one diocese, the Diocese of Niagara (Ontario), banned intinction in its churches. The Anglican Church of Canada published on its website a research report on risks of infection and communion practices.
From an Anglican theological standpoint, there’s no requirement to take communion in both “species” (bread and wine); indeed, most Catholics (at least when I was growing up) never get near the chalice. But it’s a tradition, and, as such, is both difficult to see around and important to examine in light of (realistic) health concerns.
Hmmm. I am the chair of our parish Worship Commission, and we have a meeting Wednesday night. Maybe I’ll print off that report and bring it up there.
I reluctantly admit I hate the “floaters” that develop in the wine, both intinction and common cup. Definitely an occupational hazard for lay eucharistic ministers and clergy who have to drink that stuff at the end of communion.
The floaters (chunks of bread that crumble off during handling) don’t bother me all that much (though they represent the one draw-back to real bread vs. poker chips). I get more bothered by dealing with the crumbs of bread on the ground when it’s a particularly crumbly weekend.